While liturgically we must celebrate the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, behind the scenes our dear St. John Paull II is celebrating his feast day!  We would like to share with a reflection he gave on the Sacred Heart.  He spent three summers reflecting upon the Litany of the Sacred Heart in his weekly Angelus address and the following is from his reflection on July 9, 1989:

 

"'Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God, have mercy on us.' 

     The expression 'Heart of Jesus' immediately calls to mind the humanity of Christ, and emphasizes the richness of his feelings, his compassion towards the sick; his preference for the poor; his mercy towards sinners; his tenderness towards children; his strength in denouncing hypocrisy, pride, violence; his meekness in front of his opponents; his zeal for the glory of the Father and his jubilation in the mysterious and providential workings of grace.

With reference to the facts of the Passion, the expression “Heart of Jesus” then draws out the sadness of Christ at the betrayal by Judas, the discouragement of his loneliness, his agony before death, his filial and obedient abandonment into the hands of the Father. And it speaks above all of the love which flows unceasingly from within him: infinite love towards the Father and love without limits towards man.

 

     Now, this Heart so humanly rich, “is united – the Litany reminds us – to the Person of the Word of God”. Jesus is the Word of God incarnate; in him, there is only one person – the eternal person of the word - subsisting in two natures, the divine, and the human. Jesus is one, in the indivisible reality of his being and is, at the same time, perfect in his divinity, perfect in our humanity; he is equal to the Father, in all that concerns his divine nature, equal to us, with regard to human nature; true Son of God and true Son of man. The Heart of Jesus then, from the moment of the Incarnation, has been and always will be united to the Person of the Word of God.

 

      Through the union of the Heart of Jesus to the Person of the Word of God we can say: in Jesus, God loves humanly, suffers humanly, rejoices humanly. And vice versa: in Jesus, human love, human suffering, human glory acquire divine intensity and power.

 

     Gathered, dear brothers and sisters, for the prayer of the Angelus, let us contemplate with Mary the Heart of Jesus. The Virgin lived in faith, day after day, next to her Son Jesus: she knew that the flesh of her Son had flourished in her virginal womb; but she knew that because he was “the Son of the Most High" (Lk 1, 32), he infinitely transcended her: the Heart of her Son was, in fact, “united to the Person of the Word”. Hence she loved him as her Son and, at the same time, adored him as her Lord and God. May she grant us also to love and adore Christ, God and man, above all things, “with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind”. In this way, following her example, we will be the object of the divine and human predilections of the heart of her Son."

-cited from http://totus2us.com/prayer/prayers-to-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus/

 

If this gives you a desire to read more, there is a book which compiles all his reflections:

Angelus Meditations on the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus