Christ love the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy

SACRED HEART

Eph 5:25b-27 (First Vespers)

Fr. Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB

The reading from the letter to the Ephesians tells us how much Christ loved the Church. He died to make it holy, and he washed it of every stain of sin in the water of baptism and by the power of God's word, so that it might be a glorious Church, holy and immaculate. The letter implies that the Church Jesus loved and for which he offered his life on the cross was sinful and in need of forgiveness. The twenty centuries of Church history are an eloquent witness to the patience and forbearance of Christ with a Church which has a proclivity to worship other gods, to cling to things of this world like political power and social acclaim, indeed to use the name of Christ for its own material benefits. But never has Christ disowned his Church, never has he abandoned it. That is how much he loves the Church. This, it seems to me, is the message of the feast we celebrate today.

When the letter to the Ephesians says that Christ loved the Church, it implicitly says that he loves you and me with a love only the cross and a wounded heart can express. Each of us, through sins small and great, depict in our lives the twenty centuries of the Church. Each of us are an image of the Church always in need of forgiveness, always repeating the "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa".

Who among us priests, religious, seminarians, or lay has not experienced the heart of Jesus? Who among us here has no tale to tell of his acts of forbearance with us? When others would have disowned us, he continued with divine obstinacy to claim us. When others would have punished us, he has only shown understanding and compassion. When we would have given everything up and, like the disciples of Emmaus, abandoned the Jerusalem of our religious commitment and our ministry, did he not meet us on the road to speak to our hearts and to lead us back to our senses. That is how much Christ loves us. And each of us, I am sure, has more such stories to tell, more proofs of his love to proclaim, more praises to bring to his sacred heart. This, it seems to me, is the meaning of the feast we celebrate today.