Through the ‘Beautiful Gate’ of Jesus’ Sacred Heart: Preparing for a National Consecration

The pierced heart of Christ reveals a path of mercy, communion and mission for the Church in America today, ahead of its 250^th anniversary.

(Photo: Unsplash)

By Father Jim Thermos

This June 11, the bishops of the United States are inviting each of us to draw nearer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as they consecrate the United States to that heart, burning for love of us. As that day approaches, we can glean new insight into that Heart and the call to intimacy that Jesus makes in each of our lives today.

Wound and Gate

As we gaze upon Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart, leading up to this national consecration and every day, he invites us to look closely at images of his Passion: the crown of thorns, the cross enveloped in flames of his burning love for us, and the precious wound caused by the soldier’s lance, from which flowed water (a sign of our Baptism) and blood (a symbol of the Most Holy Eucharist).

That very wound, from which flowed water and blood, signs of Baptism and the Most Holy Eucharist, becomes a gate through which each of us is invited to enter.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches us that he is the Good Shepherd. He goes on to assure us: “Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. … I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:7-8).

Through the precious wound in Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart flowed water and blood, a stream of life and grace offered to us through the Church’s sacraments. Indeed, Baptism is the doorway to life in Christ. We begin our journey close to the Sacred Heart through that sacrament. The Eucharist is that which affords us an ever-deepening union with him.

How gently Jesus points to his heart, encouraging each of us to contemplate his self-sacrificial, infinite love. He invites us each day to enter into the mercy, peace and joy he longs to share with us.

A Call to Intimacy and Mission

Interestingly, Jesus instructs that whoever enters through the gate “will come in and go out and find pasture.”

I would like to suggest that by entering (going in), we are invited to Mass!  We are welcomed to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, participating in Jesus’ Passion, death and Resurrection. We receive his precious Body and Blood and rejoice with the angels and saints, to the praise of our Heavenly Father, sharing in a measure of the joy of that Most Sacred Heart.

Similarly, when we go out, we are leaving the Mass (Remember the last words of Mass: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life”) to join Jesus in his mission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). We go forth to preach the Good News, to love our brothers and sisters out of love for God and to build up his Kingdom here on earth.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, offers us his Most Sacred Heart as the “beautiful gate” (Acts 3:2) that we might joyfully “come in and go out and find [the] pasture” of eternal life.

As we prepare for this historic national consecration, may we find our way to that gate. May we have the faith to enter through it, drawing near to Jesus. May we have the courage to go out from it, seeking the lost sheep and bringing them home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.