June 9 — The Sacred Heart during Our Lord’s Public Life.

The Sacred Heart during Our Lord’s Public Life.

1. In the public ministry of Our Lord the wonderful attractiveness of the Sacred Heart cannot fail to strike even the surface reader of the Gospels. He drew all men to Him and made them forget all else. A crowd of seven thousand followed Him into the desert, and preferred to faint with hunger rather than leave Him. A woman, who was a sinner, braved the taunts and jeers of the guests at a banquet to throw herself at His feet. For those who have good-will Jesus has the same attractiveness now. I may test my good-will by seeing whether I am drawn to Him.

2. What was the secret of this attractiveness? It was not His Divine beauty, or His eloquence, or His majesty of mien. It was His overflowing, unbounded love, manifesting itself in every word. All who listened to Him could not help saying, “He loves me fondly, tenderly, and the one desire of His Heart is to lead me to better things, to save me from my miseries. It is just the same now. His Sacred Heart still yearns over me, and desires to raise me to better things.

3. Yet He was not attractive to all. Some He repelled; they were ill at ease in His presence and longed to get rid of Him. They had a positive aversion for Him and were afraid of Him. Who were these? They were the men of bad will. The self-sufficient, the self-willed, the lovers of sin. There is nothing that so destroys the attractiveness of Jesus as any sin loved and indulged Is there any such in me?