Today we celebrate the beautiful memorial of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who was born in 1647, in Burgundy, France, and she showed a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament from a very young age. A lot of us, it takes us years before we get to this kind of devotion. And yet here she is, a tender child, already on her knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament, full of faith in the Lord God of hosts, who humbles himself in the tiny host present within the tabernacle.
She entered the convent at the tender age of 23 years old, and it was there that she lived a quiet, hidden, and often misunderstood life of prayer and penance. The other sisters would not understand her ways and her radical dedication and devotion. Between 1673 and 1675, she received several apparitions of Jesus. He revealed to her his Sacred Heart, burning with love for humanity, yet wounded by indifference and ingratitude. And how apropos that he would reveal to her his Sacred Heart, she who knelt before the Eucharist so often, even at such a young age, the Eucharist that in many miracles has transformed into living, beating heart tissue in our midst. Our Lord, who gives us his everything continually. On every altar. Everywhere around the world. Every day.
Saint Margaret Mary was met with skepticism, even from her sisters in the convent. A lot of times it's the very people we live with that give us the hardest time. And yet the Lord calls us to be patient with them, to love them nevertheless. They might not be of the same spiritual level as we are, and that's not in pride that we say that. But it's a fact, especially when we hear the ways some of our family members talk about others and the words that they use, things that we would probably never say ourselves after having been disciples of Jesus for a long enough blessed time.
Eventually, her revelations were discerned and approved, and her life became a powerful witness to Christ's gentle, patient and burning love. But why is she so special? She is known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. She's like an ambassador of the heart of Jesus. Wow. Beautiful. Her spirituality is centered on intimacy with Christ. Confidence in his mercy.
How many of us live and operate in the spiritual realm on such an exterior level? It's a start. But eventually we need to move towards intimacy with Christ, spending time with him, not just saying, well, I go to Sunday Mass and I try to be good to people and I do this and I do that. But where's my prayer life at? What's my communication like with God? Is it rushed? Is it leftovers, my leftover time or do I give him the best? Do I give him the most I can offer him?
Saint Margaret Mary reminds the church that God's love is not abstract. It is personal, passionate, and self-giving. Her own struggles to be believed mirror how divine messages often come through the humble, the little ones of the gospel who are so very often rejected. So, my brothers and sisters, don't be alarmed when you are rejected and when you're rejected by the ones whom you love most. Our Lord was rejected by his very own people. Even family.
Jesus appeared to her in a Eucharistic context and often during adoration. His heart was radiant with love, surrounded by flames, a cross and a crown of thorns. A visual theology, if you will. Trinity of love, suffering and glory. His message wasn't one of fear, but of invitation. Come to me. Learn from me. Trust in my heart.
Our Lord, who wants to give us life and life to the full. He doesn't say, come to me when you're strong. He says, come to me when you are burdened. Our Lord, who yearns to be one with us, who yearns to be loved by us. Our Lord, who says to Saint Margaret Mary, and to each and every one of us: “Behold this heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing even to exhausting and consuming itself in order to testify its love.”
May God bless you. Through the intercession of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and most especially the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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