Luke 7; 36-8;3 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary time. June 13th, 2010

This past Friday we celebrated the great Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In fact, the whole month of June is dedicate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "To celebrate the Heart of Christ means to turn toward the profound center of the Person of the Savior, that center which the Bible identifies precisely as his Heart, seat of the love that has redeemed the world. (Sunday, June 24, 2002 Angelus address)."

Before this great solemnity was inaugurated the Church for many centuries had a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but this beautiful devotion took on a new life in the 1600s due to the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690). Jesus appeared to her several times, and granted her the same privilege he had granted to St. John, and in a vision to St. Gertrude: St. Margaret Mary was allowed to rest her head upon Jesus' Heart.

In His message to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of His Heart of flesh, as well as by frequent Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy Hour. Jesus said to St. Margaret, ‘Behold the Heart that has so loved men . . . instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude . . .’, He then asked her for a feast of reparation on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.”

As I said in my Homily on Friday, Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than just a devotion to a pretty picture of Jesus. It is devotion to a person, the Divine Person of Jesus truly present in His Human body with His Human fleshy Heart in the Holy Eucharist. What husband would venerate a picture of his wife if she was standing right next to Him. And so while we are apart from Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we venerate His image, either the image of the Sacred Heart or the modern version of the Divine Mercy. But when we are in the presence of His very Person in the tabernacle or on the Sacred Altar our love and devotion should be poured out on Him because there He pours out His love on us.

And this is really the message of today's Gospel. Jesus wants the ointment or the perfume of our life poured out on Him. He wants to be the sole object of all of our devotion and love, for only in Him, only in His Sacred Heart can we find refuge and strength...Love!

Our Gospel today shows the beautiful affections of this sinful woman and the coldness and indifference of the Pharisee, a sinners love for the one who granted her forgiveness; and, the hardness of heart and lack of love of a prideful man who did think he needed to be forgiven of anything.

When a guest would enter a house in the time of Jesus three things were always done as good manners demanded. The host placed his hand on the guest's shoulders and gave him a kiss of peace, especially if that guest was a distinguished Rabbi such as Jesus. Cool water was then poured over the guest's feet to cleanse and comfort them, from the dust and the difficult and dusty roads of the day. And then either a pinch of sweet-smelling incense was burned or a drop of perfume of roses was placed on the guest's head. In this case none of them was done, thus showing the great ingratitude of Simon, in contrast to the sinful woman, who many believe was Mary Magdalene.

This woman was truly a bad woman, a notoriously bad woman, a prostitute. Nevertheless, she for her part made up, that is made reparation for the ingratitude of the heart of Simon and for her own sins. She had heard Jesus speak and had seen in Him the hand, the power, that could lift her from her pit of shame and despair. Round her neck she wore, like all Jewish women, a little phial of concentrated perfume; they were called alabasters; and they were very costly. She wished to pour it on his feet. It was all she had, and so it's pouring out signified the pouring out of her heart, all her love, herself to Jesus; in other words, the giving of her heart to the heart of Christ.

As she saw Jesus, tears came and fell upon his feet washing them. And then to comfort his feet she dried them with her hair. For a woman to appear in public in those days with her hair unbound was an act of the gravest immodesty, yet in this woman's case it signified, not immodesty, but that she had forgotten everyone but Jesus; He was now the sole object of her desires.

What was at the heart of the difference between this sinful woman and Simon. Well, Simon was conscious of no need and therefore felt no love, and so received no forgiveness. Simon's impression of himself was that he was a good man in the sight of men and of God.

The woman however was conscious of nothing else than her great need of Jesus and His forgiveness for her sins; and therefore she was overwhelmed with love for Him who alone could supply it, and so she received forgiveness for her great love.

If there is one thing that cuts man off from God it is self-sufficiency. The more we realize our complete dependence on God, our need for His forgiveness the better off we are; and strangely, the better we become. St. Paul spoke of the sinfulness of men, of whom, he would say, I am foremost. St. Francis of Assisi could say, "there is nowhere a more wretched and more miserable sinner than I." In fact, we could say, the greatest of sins is to be conscious of no sin; but a sense of need, the need for forgiveness, the need for the love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist the more the door is open, the door of our hearts, to the forgiveness of God. Because God is love and love's greatest glory is to be needed.

Today we ask ourselves do we really see our great need for God and for His love and forgiveness? In what ways has our heart grown cold and indifferent as Simon's heart? Do we desire, as did the sinful woman, at this Mass and every Mass, to pour out the ointment, the perfume of our lives, of our love onto Jesus by offering in sacrifice our heart to His Sacred Heart fully contained in the Holy Eucharist?

This desire is shown by our faith, reverence and devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Last Sunday, close to 200 of you processed in the Corpus Christi procession proclaiming to the whole world your belief, adoration, hope and love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the whole Person of Jesus present in the Holy Eucharist. This by the way, is also what lies behind the offering and sacrificing of the best we have to beautify this sacred place with precious items to be used in the worship of God. I have notice as a priest that many times more than anything else you will be criticized for spending money for beautiful vestments and vessels and decorations for the sanctuary. We so many times decorate our own houses better than the house of God; we give the best to ourselves and give seconds to Jesus. What a shame.

But like the costly perfume ointment of the sinful women poured out onto Jesus' feet as a sign of her love and her great need for His love and forgiveness, doesn't beautiful things for the altar and the intensity and generosity our offering signify our great love for Jesus and our even greater need for his love and forgiveness. It was St. Francis of Assisi the apostle to the poor who said, "When it comes to the worship of God we need to use our very best to do so, our most precious metals and jewels, our finest linens and workmanship. When need to sacrifice these things, our best, not to mention our time and talent, for the worship of God, not because God needs them but because we do. The exterior beauties are like the ointment of the women, a sign of the interior offering of the beauty of our love our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. This is why if we don't practice stewardship and give generously of our time, talent and treasure we are not loving Jesus; for again, love is shown by deed, not by sweet words.

And doesn't our time spent before the heart of Jesus present in the tabernacle or on the altar at Mass or at Holy hours show our love for Jesus. Jesus ask us for our love, he who has loved us so much. Just think of the love of God that would find a way to keep His human fleshy heart on earth in order to remain with us and with which to love us and save us. Isn't it sad, in fact, reprehensible, that this love is in most cases met with indifference and ingratitude. Let that never be the case with us.

Jesus asks for Holy Hours and frequently communion, which also implies frequent confession in order to make up for the indifference of the hearts of so many men. Does our love for Him make reparation for so many others lack of love; is it strong enough? Maybe he will grant to us, the gift of resting our head upon His Heart; but only if we place ourselves frequently in the presence of His human fleshy heart and believe, adore, hope and love, begging pardon for those that do not believe, adore, hope and love His Sacred heart truly present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Let us ask our Blessed Mother to help us to pour out the ointment of love onto Jesus by offering our hearts, and so all that we have and are, totally at this Mass in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus to our heavenly Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. And then, it will no longer be our heart that beats in our chest, but Jesus Heart that beats within us.