Tabernacle in the Sacred Heart Chapel . that the fire of divine love which beats in the Sacred Heart can destroy anything in us , except that base dross in our natures , that worldliness , that we should want to see purged away ? It was not so that the saints understood the invitation of the Sacred Heart ; they would not come near it hesitatingly and with calculation , as if to warm their hands at it . Rather , they would plunge themselves into that abyss of fire , to be refined of all that was unworthy , to be melted and moulded according to God ’ s plan , to become , themselves , glowing reflections of its heat to kindle the cold hearts of their fellow men .
Let us think what it is we want this divine flame of the Sacred Heart to do for us when we draw near to it , as we do draw near to it every time we receive our Lord in the Holy Eucharist …
If we want to bring others to the faith , if we want to reclaim others from lives of sin , if we want to bring up our children in the love of God , then the first thing is to burn red-hot with the love of God ourselves . And then , if it be his will , we shall be able to pass the conflagration on . [ 1 ]
May the fire of God ’ s love spread in and through the Church today . If it will be so , it must begin with individual acts of self-surrender to him . He will then make such disciples to be like himself , so that they might share him and the fire of his love with a world grown cold .
The love that fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus does not grow weak with age . We might sometimes feel stale , but divine love never grows stale , and a fresh outpouring is always available to us . Christ only asks that we not hoard this treasure greedily . He showed us his love on the cross , he gives us his love in the Eucharist , and he asks us to show others the same love , to heal a broken world by giving with the same measureless , self-sacrificial generosity . There is no better way to bring people to Christ , to fulfill the mission of the New Evangelization , to which Sacred Heart Major Seminary and the entire Church have been dedicated .
Fr . Charles Fox is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit currently assigned to the theology faculty of Sacred Heart Major Seminary . He is also a weekend associate pastor at St . Therese of Lisieux Parish in Shelby Township and chaplain and a board member of St . Paul Evangelization Institute , headquartered in Warren . shms . edu 13