Feast of the Sacred Heart

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the patronal feast of my Franciscan Province. It also happens to be the anniversary of my ordination. Thirty-eight years ago today, through the imposition of hands by Bishop James Ryan, O.F.M., I was ordained to be one of the shepherds of which our readings speak.

As powerful as the shepherd imagery is in the first reading and in the Gospel for today, I was struck by St. Paul's words this morning. God loves us so much that he was willing to die for us, for all of us. So the image of the Sacred Heart, a heart on fire with love for us, is so apt and very Scriptural even though this devotion developed hundreds of years after the Scriptures were first written.

The Gospel is the familiar story of the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep. Pictures of the "good" shepherd with the lamb slung across his shoulders are somewhat romantic and endearing. However, as some Scripture scholars point out, an Israeli shepherd would have sought out the lost sheep simply because the cost of that sheep would have come out of his pay if he could not produce at least the hide of a sheep which had been slaughtered by predators. This was the shepherd's livelihood. He could have lost his job. He could have been accused of stealing or selling the sheep. Shepherds were generally not trusted. So searching out the lost one was a matter of some urgency. While such an image dispels the romantic notion of the story, it also heightens the sense of necessity with which the story is invested. God NEEDS to search us out.

As a confessor I have often heard these or similar words from a penitent: "I don't know why I am here today, Father. I saw the light on the confessional and was drawn to it." My response is always the same. The shepherd has been out looking for you.

Happy Feastday!

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator