UNBORN WORD of the day

Today, Friday, May 30, 2008 is the Feast Day of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Speaking on behalf of God, the prophet Samuel described King David as “a man after his own heart”, that is, after God’s own heart (I Sam 13:14). St Paul refers to this also in a sermon in a synagogue at Antioch when he quotes the Lord: “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Act 13:22). Note the link here between God’s heart and God’s will, and David’s disposition to seek both of these.

Now we leap the chasm from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from David to his distant descendant Jesus, Son of David. One day, Jesus opened up the mystery of God’s heart and will to His disciples, knowing full well that His words would go out to all of us, that is, to the ends of the earth: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:28-29).

What Jesus does here is he invites every human being to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart! And He describes God’s heart: “gentle and lowly” - nothing to be afraid of here, nothing to fear. And He makes a promise: “you will find rest for your souls” here, upon His Heart (as did the apostle John; Jn 13:23-25). If you labor and are heavy laden, then this is the way to follow the Lord, seek His heart and seek His will, as both David and John did.

He first spoke directly of this will from His mother’s womb, probably, as St Alphonsus de Ligouri contends at the first moment of His conception, that is, at the one cell stage of His human development:

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired,
but a body hast thou prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God…’”
(Heb 10:5-7)

At the one cell stage of His life, Christ was focused upon the will of His Father and acknowledges that He has been given a body (and heart) to dedicate to the will of God!

Today, October 16 is the feast day of St. Margaret Mary who was the Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (Mt 11:28-30)

Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical on Reparation To the Sacred Heart, (#2) explained how this devotion helped end the heresy of that time, Jansenism.

“As formerly Divine Goodness wished to exhibit to the human race, as it came from the Ark of Noe, a sign of the renewed covenant between them . . . so in our own troubled times, while that heresy held sway which is known as Jansenism, the most insidious of all heresies, enemy of the love of God and of filial affection for Him - for this heresy preached that God was not so much to be loved by us as a Father as to be feared as an unrelenting Judge - the most kind Jesus manifested to the nations His Sacred Heart .”

Today we need God’s love and help in fighting the most insidious heresy of our time - abortion. That is why Unborn Word of the day is dedicated to honoring the Unborn Christ Child. By honoring the 9 months Christ spent in Mary’s womb we want to show God’s love for and solidarity with each unborn child.

Because He completely identifies with all unborn children, indeed is one of them, when we lift up and exalt Unborn Jesus, in a real sense we lift up all unborn children with Him. Him we honor as God, they we honor as children created in His image and likeness, and for His glory.

We believe that just as the devotion to the Sacred Heard helped end the heresy of Jansensim - devotion to the Unborn Christ Child can help end abortion.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart - June 15

“This love inflamed His Heart from the first moment of His conception until His last breath and, since His resurrection, has not ceased nor will ever cease doing so.”
St. Peter Julian Eymard, S.S.S. The Real Presence

The first distinctive parts of His Body to be formed would have been the heart and head. At three weeks they were primitively functional, but by six weeks their form is clearly distinctive. Pope Pius XII has stated that from the moment of Our Lord’s conception. “The adorable Heart of Jesus Christ began to beat with a love at once human and divine after the Virgin Mary generously pronounced Her “Fiat”.” Pope Pius XII, “On Devotion To The Sacred Heart Of Jesus” (Haurietis Aquas), 63. The Love of God Incarnate did not wait for a physical human organ to join its urgent surging beat for love of us! But certainly once the physical human organ was in place it too, in perfect unison, took up this pulse of eternal love.

And so we picture the unborn baby Jesus within His mother’s womb, skin almost transparent in these early weeks of human life, and His Heart, not yet hidden by a thicker, more developed skin, but visible, actually throbbing, pulsing with divine love for us! This is the miniature reservoir of that one commodity that could purchase the salvation of the entire human race, the blood of God Himself! This Precious Blood is separate and different from His mother’s. A small delicate vial of heavenly medicine. It is a tiny Heart, but proportionately compared to the rest of its body, during the first and second months it measures up to nine times the size of the adult heart. Appropriately, the Heart of Unborn Jesus (and His head) dominated His Body: for the Incarnation is about God’s Love for us.

Not only was the Heart of Unborn Jesus proportionally large in physical size, but like that of all unborn infants it beat at a much faster rate than the adult heart (roughly twice as fast) as if to leave no doubt as to its quickening desires and designs towards the human family.

Surely Unborn Jesus had – and has – a special place in His most tiny hidden heart for today’s vulnerable unborn children.

Excerpts from Unborn Jesus Our Hope

June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Much can be said about His heart and His love for innocent babies and children. But there is also another perspective too and that is how much He cares for people who are pro - life and trying to build up a Culture of Life and protect the unborn. In other words, God reaches out to you this month in a special way, to encourage you in your pro-life work!

“Come to me, all (you who are pro-life) who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28-30

If you are sometimes discouraged in your pro-life work there is a place you can always go for courage and encouragement - to the Heart of Jesus Christ!