The sermon of Sacred Heart, Seoul (12^th Jun 2026)

 

1. From Our Lord’s Nativity in December up to the coming of the Holy Ghost in Pentecost quite recently, Holy Mother Church has made us contemplate the mysteries of our Creation, Redemption and Sanctification.

 

2. Through the liturgy we have witnessed how out of goodness, God brought us to a natural existence with the purpose of making us partakers of His supernatural and eternal happiness. Albeit out of pure goodness, the mystery of Creation was done with such wisdom that God’s beauty is reflected in the whole universe, both in general and in all its details.

 

3. Through the ceremonies and teachings of the Church we witnessed how God’s wisdom accompanied His goodness in such a way that to redeem us both His justice and mercy shone magnificently to show us the way to salvation.

 

4. Through the Sacraments and her teachings, Holy Mother Church continuously expounds before our very eyes God’s goodness and wisdom in sanctifying us, by the unction of the Holy Ghost that makes us capable, not only of conquering sin, but also of extracting medicine from the damages of sin itself.

 

5. However, God’s wisdom, goodness, justice and mercy were all driven by this one impulsor, the one motor: it is love. The reason for creation, for redemption and for our continuing sanctification is God’s love. It has a name: charity.

 

6. But since God Himself became Man, the Word has been made flesh, not only we can know, love and serve a visible God. We can also adore the instrument of that love of God, instrument that is united to the Person itself of God made Man. That instrument is the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

7. And so today we wish to honor His Sacred Heart at least by this sermon. Here we do not have all the liberty of honoring Him as in other places. Let us, at least, honor Him with our tongues.

 

8. Now, however, purportedly with the same finality, devotion to the Sacred Heart has become merely sentimental, has become even trivialized. Because of this, the Catholic religion has been relegated to the realm of the emotions. The love of God, the love that we must profess towards God, has been reduced to mere confidence in His mercy.

 

9. It is as if it is God who has the burden of proving is love for us and not the other way around. It is as if God, because of love, is obliged to do what is pleasing to us under penalty of losing his goodness.

 

10. All these confusions are because many churchmen today have deviated from the traditional teaching of the Church with the intention of reconciling the teaching of the Church with the maxims of the world. Not only that, false apparitions of Our Lord have been allowed to be tacitly approved in practice, purported apparitions and supposed messages that dilute and even contradict the message of Our Lord given thru St Margaret Mary Alacoque.

 

11. That’s why we cling to the perennial liturgy and teachings of Holy Mother Church. We cannot accept the modern teaching that justice is to the detriment of mercy. On the contrary, both justice and mercy characterize the goodness and wisdom of God.

 

12. That’s why the traditional liturgy, the traditional feast of Our Lord’s most Sacred Heart aims to conduce us to a piety that is not presumptive nor based on fear, but a piety that is confident and, thus, produces joy and peace in our hearts.

 

13. But not all Catholics have this confident piety that produces joy. Why? Because we have, generally speaking, 3 ways of relating with God. 1. If we fear only his punishments, and we never really correspond to His love, then we will have fearful piety. This happens to Catholics who, while wanting to love God, also wants to love the world or, at least, not to displease the world.

 

14. Number 2 is when we indeed love God, but in an imperfect manner: we love God because of His rewards or benefits, not really because God is infinitely worthy of our love. In this case we have a hopeful piety. It is a piety that can already conquer the world, but it is still conquerable by the world.

 

15. Number 3 is when we love God as He should be loved: source of all good and infinitely worthy of all our love, independently of His gifts and rewards. This is possible when we live in God’s grace, when we live cultivating virtues, giving more importance to following Our Lord more than the rewards when we follow Him, and when we fully immerse ourselves in the mind of the Church thru Her liturgy as She unravels the mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only then can we have a confident piety that gives true joy and peace to the soul.

 

16. And so, dear faithful, let us see what is the Sacred Heart of Jesus for ourselves. Is it simply the object of our emotional affections? Or is it the object our mind and heart? Is it our true albeit hidden treasure? Is it simply an object we don’t want to offend because of the punishments that it can inflict us?

 

17. Is His rewards already the object of our hopes but nothing more beyond that? Or does His Sacred Heart matter most for us, independently if there will be rewards or not? “By their fruits you shall know” said Our Lord. By the kind of piety that we have towards Our Lord, we will know.  Amen.