Love with all the sadness

Earlier this week I was talking to someone who said that for him, the Sacred Heart is Good Friday without all the sadness. And Yessss I thought (and said!) - YESSSS. Because what is the Sacred Heart if not unlimited Love, freely given, and unconditionally poured out - as on the Cross? And what is at the heart of our RSCJ spirituality if not a Heart which is ever-open because it has been pierced and wounded... an act of barbaric cruelty which released a torrent of redemptive, healing, life-giving love? And what is Good Friday if not Love's self-gift and outpouring, but with concomitant pain, and sadness? 

And as anyone who has ever loved fiercely, or known the anguish of loss can attest, the joy of love and the suffering of sacrifice are so often intertwined - and it is precisely that love which can both lead to sacrifice, and give it its meaning.

Yes, in the Heart of Jesus we have the consequences of Good Friday: we have, and can enjoy, Good Friday without all the sadness. But we can only enjoy and receive the love of that Heart because of Good Friday; because of all the sadness. We cannot have Jesus, through whose every wound we are healed, without the intense pain of his piercing and his wounding. We cannot have the Sacred Heart without this supreme self-offering; without this copious outpouring of forgiveness and love... And we cannot, could never have, Good Friday without the Love which is its meaning - which, as Julian of Norwich knew, is God's whole meaning - and is at the heart of its every moment.   

Today, may we remain with and centre our own hearts on Love with all the sadness... and then prepare to celebrate the Love which is the source of all our life, all our hope and all our rejoicing.