Homilies preached by Father Altier on the Feast of the Sacred Heart

The Lord tells us, in the first reading today, that He Himself will pasture His sheep; He will be the shepherd; He will bring them to the green pastures and the plush grazing ground. He tells us that He will gather us from all the places we have been scattered when it was dark and gloomy. He will bring us back and He will teach us. That is the love of the heart of a shepherd: He will actually go out looking for his sheep.

Friday June 22, 2001

Feast of the Sacred Heart

Reading I (Ezekiel 34:11-16)

Reading II (Romans 5:5b-11)

Gospel (St. Luke 15:3-7)

One might wonder why, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we are hearing all about a shepherd. But in order to understand the love of Our Lord which, of course, is symbolized by the heart, one has to understand the heart of a shepherd. The Lord tells us, in the first reading today, that He Himself will pasture His sheep; He will be the shepherd; He will bring them to the green pastures and the plush grazing ground. He tells us that He will gather us from all the places we have been scattered when it was dark and gloomy. He will bring us back and He will teach us. That is the love of the heart of a shepherd: He will actually go out looking for his sheep.

It is like the heart of a parent. If we hear on the news that there is a lost child, we might say, "How unfortunate. We can pray for them." If you are the parent of the lost child, you are not going to say, "How unfortunate, maybe I will pray for my kid." You are going to be out looking for them while you are praying at the same time. You are going to be frantic about the way you are praying because your heart is filled with love for your own.

We are the Lord's own. We are members of Jesus Christ, we are members of God's Son. He Himself is our Father and He will shepherd us. He has given us His own Son to be the shepherd. He has given us His own heart. That is why Saint Paul, in the second reading, can talk about how through Him we have been reconciled, we have been brought back; even though, like sheep, we strayed and we were scattered. We have been brought back and we have been reconciled through the Blood of Christ. If we want to understand the love of Jesus Christ for us, the love of God for us, Saint Paul tells us that "it is almost unheard of that anyone would have the courage to die for someone who was just, but it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us." That God would do this for us is something beyond our wildest imagination, unless we understand the heart of the Lord and the love of Jesus Christ. He came specifically because He loves us infinitely, unlike our love. Even a parent's love for a child, as profound as that is, pales in comparison to the love of Our Lord for us because His love is perfect, it is infinite, and it is complete. His love burns for us. It is a heart that is absolutely infinite love. He gives Himself totally to us.

In the Gospel reading, He tells us about the joy there will be over finding one lost sheep. When we look around the chapel today, imagine the joy in Heaven over all of these sheep that were lost and have been found, over all of these sinners who have repented. There is not one of us here who can say that we never went astray. There is not one of us here who can say, "I do not have a need to repent. I did not ever have a need to be reconciled. I never wandered from God. I do not need a shepherd." We know better than that. So, when we see how many the Lord has brought to Himself, the rejoicing in Heaven is tremendous. The rejoicing in our hearts for the love of the Lord (because of His heart) should also be tremendous. We have no need to be down on ourselves, thinking how rotten and horrible we are and all the other things. That is nonsense. It may all be true, but we do not need to be thinking about that. What we need to be about is rejoicing that Our Shepherd has come to find us, has brought us back to the fold, and has reconciled us with Our Heavenly Father.

Note: Father Altier does not write his homilies in advance, but relies solely upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Friday June 7, 2002

Feast of the Sacred Heart

Reading I (Deuteronomy 7:6-11)

Reading II (1 John 4:7-16)

Gospel (St. Matthew 11:25-30)

In the Gospel reading, Our Lord describes His own Self as being meek and humble of heart. That is the Sacred Heart of Jesus: a heart that is meek, which means it is not angry; it is one that is lowly; it is one that is humble; it is a heart that is love. All that the heart of Jesus is capable of doing is loving. There is nothing else. There is no admixture of any kind in the heart of Our Lord; it is all love. What a great privilege and joy for us to know that, to know that He has invited each one of us to Himself. "Come to Me," He said. He wants us to be there in His Sacred Heart. So much does He want us to be in His Sacred Heart that the very last thing He did was to allow His Sacred Heart to be torn wide open so that each one of us could enter through that wound into the depth of His heart, into the very love of His heart.

But He does not simply want us to be able to be drawn to His heart; in order to do so, we must become like Him. That is why Saint John could say, "Love consists of this: not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as the expiation for our sins." The love comes from God and God Himself has sent that love into this world in the very Person of His Son.

But if we want, as we do in our humanness, to take something that describes the fullness of our person at the very core and essence of who we are, we talk about our heart. "This is the deepest thing of my heart. It’s the desire of my heart. It’s the love of my heart." All these different things we talk about regarding the heart, but of course it means the fullness of the person, everything that we are. The same is true of Jesus. While the Father does not have a heart per se; nonetheless, God is love and what He has done is to take all the love that He is and He has made it into human form. In the very depths of that human form, which is His Son made man, He has put the Sacred Heart and He has shown us His love - a love which is willing to die for us, a love which is willing to give absolutely everything for us, a love for us which is not something that we earned or deserved.

As Moses said to the people, "It is not because you were the largest of nations, but rather you are the smallest; it is because God loved you." Now that does not mean we were the best, the brightest, the most impressive, the most lovable of all creatures - just the opposite. It is simply because He loves us. It does not need to make sense, and it never will make sense because love is not something that you reason out. You fall in love with somebody in your heart, not in your head; it is the same with God. He loves us, pure and simple. Do not try to figure out why He loves you because you will never figure out why - He simply does. [It is] the same reason you love your children. Even when they are teenagers, you continue to love them and it does not make any sense why. If you try to reason it out and say, "What reason has this kid given me to love him?" He hasn’t; you love him because he is your child. How much more, then, does God love us, whom He created in His own image and likeness and whom He died for on the Cross and invites each one of us into His Sacred Heart.

The love of God is without question. The only thing that is in question is our response. Jesus calls us to be like Him. "Learn from Me," He says, "for I am meek and humble of heart." "Become like Me" is what He is saying to each one of us. "Make your hearts just like my heart." But that means you have to become like a little child because that is what He told us: "The heavenly Father revealed to the merest of children what He has hidden from the learned and the clever." So forget all the mind games, put it all aside; get into the heart. Allow the heart to be conformed to the heart of Jesus. Allow yourself to be loved, and love in return. Come to Him all you who are heavy burdened and He will give you rest. Learn from Him for He is meek and humble of heart.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Enter Into His Most Sacred Heart

Friday June 27, 2003

Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reading I (Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9)

Reading II (Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19)

Gospel (St. John 19:31-37)

In the first reading which we heard today from the Book of the Prophet Hosea, God tells us how it is that He is going to draw us to Himself. God, Who is love, eternal and infinite love, has chosen that the best way for us to be able to understand His love is in a human manner. He says, “It was I Who drew them with human cords, with bands of love.” And so it was in a human manner that God was going to call us. Even though He is divine, He chose to come down to take on our human nature. And in His Sacred Heart the very love of God was radiant, dwelt within and radiated out, so that we would be able to be drawn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On the Cross, as we heard in the Gospel reading, His heart was pierced. It is wide open so that we will be able to enter in. There is nothing that is blocking the way of entrance into the Sacred Heart of Jesus for us now.

In order to enter into that Heart, it must be done in love. It is not something that we try to conquer. It is not something that we can approach with pride or with selfishness, but rather it is something which can only be approached in humility and in the greatest of charity. We must become like the Heart of Jesus in order to be able to be one with that Sacred Heart. Once we have entered within that Heart of Our Lord, then we enter into that mystery of which Saint Paul speaks from the second reading today from his Letter to the Ephesians. He prays that each one of us would know the height and length and depth and breadth, that is, the Holy of Holies. One place where the height and length and depth and breadth were identical was in the Holy of Holies in the sanctuary of the temple, but this is the Holy of Holies of Our Lord. It is Heaven itself to be able to enter into the Sacred Heart. It is the holy place, and that is a place of sanctuary that Our Lord has reserved for those who love Him, that He has wide open for us.

When we look upon Him on the Cross, there is no protection; He is completely vulnerable. His arms are wide open and His heart has been pierced. There is absolutely nothing on Our Lord’s side that will keep us from being able to enter into the sanctuary of His Heart. The only thing that lacks is on our part. If there is something in the way in our own hearts, in our own lives, that keeps us away from Jesus – if we are unwilling to be vulnerable as He is vulnerable, if we are unwilling to love as He loves, or to be humble as He is humble – then what happens is that we stay away. We stay at a distance because we refuse to come near because we are afraid. But Our Lord has removed all cause for fear. He has shown us His love, He has demonstrated it to the end. And it is in a human way that He has shown it to us.

We know that God is love, just pure and simple. But because sin has damaged us so badly, we, in our humanness, tragically keep on saying, “Prove it to me. Show me. I need to see it. I have to have some evidence. I want proof.” Look at the Cross and look at the Sacred Heart, pierced and wide open for you. In fulfillment of the Prophet Zechariah, it will be said of each one of us, “They will look upon him whom they have pierced through.” His Sacred Heart is wide open to us. Do not stay at a distance. Become like the Heart of Jesus and enter into that sanctuary, into the Holy of Holies of the Heart of Our Lord. And there, recognize in a human way the divine love. Recognize there in that human Heart that Jesus received from His mother the very love of God Himself, proven, demonstrated for you, for each and every one of us. He holds nothing back for Himself. He does not protect Himself at all. He leaves Himself completely vulnerable so that anyone who comes to Him He will never reject.

Our task then is to be humble enough, charitable enough, to actually come to Him. Not to look upon Him from a distance, but rather to enter in through the opening in His side into His Sacred Heart which remains open to us so that we can enter not only into the sanctuary but into the very love of God Himself and know the mystery of the love of God in human form.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Friday June 18, 2004

Feast of the Sacred Heart

Reading I (Ezekiel 34:11-16)

Reading II (Romans 5:5b-11)

Gospel (St. Luke 15:3-7)

In the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord tells us that He Himself is going to shepherd His sheep. The reason for that is because His human shepherds have failed Him. They have used the sheep, they have taken their wool, they have taken the milk, and they have not shepherded the sheep because they shepherded themselves. What happens when that occurs is that the sheep scatter all over the place, and the Lord talks about how they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. Well, that is the day we are living in. We have lots of human shepherds who have taken the money from people. They have driven the people in a way that is completely uncharitable and selfish, but they have not shepherded the people of God. And so God Himself will intervene, but it is not yet. He is going to allow things to get completely cloudy and dark. He is going to allow the sheep to be scattered all over.

Now we would think that if He is the Good Shepherd that He would not allow this, but He allows it for one reason, and that is for us to recognize that we are not strong enough by ourselves. When He talks about what He is going to do, how He is going to bind up the sick and heal the broken and so on, He says, But the strong and the sleek I will destroy. Those who think they do not need the Lord, those who think they can handle this by themselves, they will have no part of Christ because they do not accept His salvation. They do not accept His way and therefore they will be cut off.

Unfortunately, probably many of us fall right into that category. In our heads we would say, “Oh, no, no, no, I need Jesus,” but by the way we live I would suspect that we betray the truth rather frequently. That is, we think we can do it by ourselves. We cannot. And so if we look at the Gospel reading, for instance, and we hear that there will be more rejoicing over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine who do not have need for repentance, we realize that if we think we have no need to repent we are among those strong and sleek. If we want to sit back and point our finger at everyone else and say, “Look at the way that they’re trying to live their faith! Thankfully, I’m not like them!” we are the strong and the sleek. We are going to be destroyed if that is the case. We have to realize that the only reason any of us can live our faith at all is because of the grace of God, and the only reason any of us can remain in union with Christ is a gift of the Lord.

So we can look at our own selves and just ask the simple question, “Am I following Christ, or am I following myself while convincing myself that I’m following Christ?” In other words, are we seeking Him in prayer, are we listening to His voice, are we following where He is leading? Or are we simply using our own minds to be able to say, “This is the right path and I’m going to be on it”? In which case, we become self-righteous and we become strong and sleek. We think we can stand in judgment of everyone else and we do not need to repent because we have got it together and no one else does.

Until we recognize that we are weak, we are sick, we are broken, and we are in absolute need of our Shepherd – that we need to listen to His voice and we need to follow where He is going to lead us, not where we think we ought to be, but where He leads us – we will have no part of Him. But when we get to that point, we will be among those sheep that recognize the need to repent. That will bring great joy to heaven. When we finally get rid of our own self-righteousness, we recognize our own weakness and we repent. That is our call. That is exactly what Our Lord is asking from each one of us. And it is not just simply saying, “Oh, yeah, I’m a sinner. I know that I go to Confession,” but it is to look deep into our hearts and truly repent and be humble before the Lord. That is what He is looking for because when we can get there then we will be the first to admit: “I cannot do this myself” – not just say it in our heads, but mean it from our hearts. When we do that then we will be willing to listen to His voice, then we will be willing to follow where He leads because we realize that where we have led ourselves is completely astray from our Shepherd.

So that is what Our Lord is looking for from us: to be humble, to be repentant, to be weak, to be broken so that we recognize our dependence on Him and that we will listen to Him and be obedient to Him.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Friday June 3, 2005

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reading I (Deuteronomy 7:6-11)

Reading II (1 John 4:7-16)

Gospel (St. Matthew 11:25-30)

In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord tells His Father that what He has hidden from the learned and the clever He has revealed to the little ones. That is us. It is just like what we heard in the first reading today in the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses tells the people, It is not because you are the largest of all nations that God has placed His heart upon you, but because you are the smallest of all nations.

We have to realize that it does not matter how intelligent we are, what kind of position we hold, the reality of the matter is that in God’s eyes we are the most helpless, the least, the smallest, and so on. Thanks be to God for that, because if we were not He would not have chosen us. He will use the gifts that He has given to us. For instance, if He has given you profound intellectual ability then He will use that for His glory, but He is not going to give that to you simply so you can get caught up in your own arrogance because that would violate everything He is about. He Who is God came into this world as a slave, taking our nature and being born as a helpless little baby. He is not going to expect that we are going to be pounding our chests and thinking that somehow we are great, because that is not what He did. He has given us the example, Saint Peter said, to follow in His footsteps.

If that is the case, then we have to learn to love because that is what the whole thing is about. To love is to serve. That is what Jesus did and that is exactly what He calls each one of us to do. And love, Saint John tells us in the second reading, is not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and He sent His Son as the expiation for our sins. So recognizing this and having our sins forgiven, the potential to love is fully present within us. All we have to be willing to do is humble ourselves and allow God to work in us, to give us His Spirit so that we can love, because God is love and love has to come from Him. It cannot come from us; it has to come from Him. All we can do is receive His love and then act upon it, but we can never be the ones to initiate it. Again, we see the humility that must be there on our part. We must come before Him, we must receive from Him, and in receiving then we will be able to give.

So we have to be little, we have to be humble, and we have to allow ourselves to be loved. That is a very, very difficult thing for some of us to do because we do not believe that we are lovable or we think we have to prove ourselves or we have to earn it or whatever it might be. When you are dealing with God, the more you try to prove how good and lovable you are, the worse it gets, because you cannot. All you can do is accept that God loves you because He created you to be loved. He loves you infinitely, and therefore we simply need to accept. It is not because we have done anything. It is not because we are so great. It is just because God is our heavenly Father Who created us and loves us. That is hard. It is so simple that it is hard for us, but it is the reality.

So we need to place ourselves before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, His Sacred Heart there wide open to us, pouring out the love that He has for us, and we simply need to receive, to allow ourselves to be loved. In that experience of being loved, then we in turn will be able to love. But that requires first that we recognize our littleness because the only way these mysteries are going to be revealed is when we are little – not because we are wise and clever, but because we are small. When we come before the Lord in humility, then and only then will we be able to accept the love that He has for us; not accept it intellectually (that we already know), but accept it in our hearts. Then it will be exactly what Our Lord came into this world to do. It will be Heart speaking to heart. It will be Love speaking to love. It will be the two, Jesus and His beloved – your soul, united to be one reality.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

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