This year we cannot offer the Mass of St. Barnabas on his feast day because evidently
this year the feast of St. Barnabas (June 11) falls on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus certainly does take precedence. Yet we can surely
reflect on the life of the patron saint dedicated to our parish and implore his
intercession.
A wonderful book that I recommend is Searching For and Maintaining Peace by
Father Jacques Philippe. He states:
The most decisive motive to and peacefully confronting the drama of suffering is this:
we must take very seriously the mystery of the Incarnation and that of the
Cross. Jesus took our flesh, He really took upon Himself our sufferings.
And in all people who suffer there is Jesus who suffers.
Furthermore, Father Jacques Phillipe states that there is no soul that is without
suffering. This includes the saints and especially the Blessed Virgin. She felt a
spiritual arrow pierce through her heart. In the modern age we are so intensely
attentive to our own physical hearts. There is a spiritual dimension to our own that
also needs attention. And only God can truly fill it. How the Saints have experienced
that truth and we the faithful on Earth with them.
The Devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was always part of the tradition of the
Church. In a way, this began with the apostles especially St. John. The words of Jesus
on the Cross: I thirst, the beloved disciple leaning on the side of Jesus are all
references to the Sacred Heart. Among the apostles St. Barnabas too felt the tender
love of Jesus by embracing St. Paul and leading him to the apostles.
The tender of Heart of Jesus is within every heart that He has created. He is in every
soul that suffers. And it is His Heart that is the king and center of all hearts.
In Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Jeff Yildirmaz
