From Archbishop Donoghue

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we have the special blessing to be together and to offer this First Friday Mass in honor of our Lord's Sacred Heart. This custom, of celebrating First Fridays in honor of the Sacred Heart has been a part of our religion since the 17 th century, when it was introduced by St. Margaret Mary, after a series of visions she experienced. Though unknown to our protestant brethren, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is very common in Catholic surroundings. We have several churches in the state named Sacred Heart - and some would say that the most beautiful church in Atlanta is Sacred Heart downtown.

You might wonder why we feel this special affection or emotion regarding this image of our Lord' heart? Is it just sentimental attachment to the image of the Sacred Heart - something that sticks with us, perhaps from childhood, and that take for granted about our religion, like the rosary, or holy water, or asking for St. Anthony's help when you've lost something?

Or is it because of something real, that the Lord does for us - some special gift, that God, through His Son has brought to us, to help us with life, with other people, and to make us better and holier people.

One of our many Catholic saints, one you may not have heard of before, St. Laurence Justinian, a bishop of Venice, said something that reveals as best it can be, the meaning of the mystery of Christ's Sacred Heart and what His heart means to us. He said, that during the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Sacrament we are celebrating here tonight, "the heart of God is made one and inseparable with our own hearts."

This is very similar to when a man and woman truly fall in love, and they might say to one another, "I give my heart to you," or "I give you all my heart." This is what God is saying to us, when He gives us, and we receive, the Body and Blood of His Son. This is God, our Father in Heaven, saying to us, "I give my heart to you."

But when God says this to us, He is giving us something in addition to love - He is giving us grace, and grace is the power - the strength - to put love into action.

In the Gospel Jesus tells us that we are the "light of the world," and "the salt of the earth." And He speaks of the uselessness of salt when it has lost its flavor, or of light if it is hidden under a basket.

This is what can happen to our souls, if we lose contact with Christ, especially if we stay away from Holy Communion - if we don't receive His Body and Blood, we forget how to see and to feel His heart, and we forget how much meaning and fulfillment we find in His heart.

Part of the reason our Lord came to earth, and became a man, was so that He could fully share in what makes us human - so that He could share what we have to experience, what we have to suffer during human life. Just as much as a series of events, our lives are made up of a series of feelings - from the innocent wonder of our time as infants and children, to the explosive curiosity and boldness that comes upon us when we begin to mature, to the resignation and steady application of our so-called prime years, and finally the quieter and more reasoned wisdom of our later years, when the contemplation or perhaps recollection of an event becomes as important as the living of it. During all this time, the time we have been given to live, we feel so many emotions - wonder, joy, fear, patience, sorrow, hope - but we know that when these emotions take us, and we are moved, we do not feel them alone. God, the God who made us, the God who loves us, has also come down among us. He knows and understands and feels what we feel - He feels our joys, our fears, our sorrows - and He does this because He has a heart - a holy and bottomless heart, that, except for sin, can take in and share anything we bring to Him. And even sin, if we are sorry for it, can be forgiven, by the merciful, the loving heart of God

And from His heart, comes forth that magical, supernatural medicine that heals our souls, His grace. Grace is the life of God - His being - His strength - which He shares with us. And grace is the love of Christ, flowing from His heart, which changes us - it makes us the salt of the world, helping us to bring out and to save what is best in people - grace lights a fire in our hearts and souls and makes us a light - a beacon, by which others will come to see God, and to see what offers those who turn to Him with love. And though we use our intellects, and our wills, and our bodies in His service, it is through our hearts - through our hearts, that we are most moved to serve Him, moved by His heart joining ours. And as the saints have told us, our hearts become most closely united to His, when we celebrate this Sacrament - the Sacrament of His sacrifice for us, the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Had Jesus wanted, even as a child, He could have taken a very different course from the one He chose. If He had wanted, He could have judged the world, found it completely lacking, and destroyed it with a single word. But when He speaks to us in the Gospel today, we hear the reason why He didn't do this. He says, "I came not to abolish, but to fulfill." To fulfill - and how best is human life made full, except when it is opened to the love that comes from His heart and enters ours? We may turn out to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, but He - Jesus Christ our Lord - He, is the love in our hearts - and because His love dwells in our hearts, we are able to do, we are able to be, good and holy, as good and as holy as He wants.

Dear friends, let us thank God for the saints who labor to make clear to us, all the wonderful gifts that are a part of our Faith - all the wonderful images God uses to express His love for us. And let us never fear, to bring before God, to bring before His Son our Lord, all that dwells in our hearts. For unless we choose to be known by God, known completely - unless we choose to move God with the sum total of we are, then we cannot be moved - we cannot be changed by Him - we cannot be made all that He wants us to be.

For we were created in the beginning out the love of His heart - for love of us He suffered and died on the Cross, where His heart bled for us - and because He loves us and wants us with Him, He has promised us eternal life as a reward for loving Him - for giving Him our hearts in return. May He pour forth upon us today, as we receive His Body and Blood, His wondrous love, and may we never again turn away from the mercy of His Most Sacred Heart.

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