As the Month of June Rages
“Lo, the proud, insolent procession of our offenses has wounded the innocent Heart of God.”
Hymn for First Vespers of the Feast of the Sacred Heart
June is my favorite month. We have several birthdays, our wedding anniversary, and two of my very favorite feast days--The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Nativity of John the Baptist (who coincidentally shares my own birthday). June flowers. June weather. June vibes. I adore it all. Until the first day of June when I open my inbox or log onto social media and I am inundated with rainbows and the celebration of PRIDE. Sigh. On the upside, I end up spending much less time online during this particular month.
Ironically, the lynchpin sin of pride is celebrated during the month the Holy Church has devoted to the Most Sacred Heart. Pride is absolutely irreconcilable with the virtues of the Heart of Jesus--meekness, humility, docility. Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues, have mercy on us!
Self-serving and arrogant, pride is the epitome of non serviam--I will not serve. The pride movement is an absolute disservice to those within the gay sub-cultures. Instead of encouraging the abandonment of a manifestly sinful lifestyle, pride promotes, encourages, and justifies, ultimately imprisoning souls in darkness.
As the years roll on from one June to another, it feels like we are losing a battle. The secular world has overturned traditional Christian teaching and enthusiastically embraced a twisted new gospel of acceptance and false compassion. Catholic schools and even Catholic churches hang rainbow flags in delight and in direct opposition to traditional Catholic teaching. We have gone so wrong.
As a Christian this is such a difficult and controversial topic to tackle. Judgement, condemnation, and hatred have absolutely no place in our treatment of those with same sex attraction or gender dysphoria. The real challenge is how do we continue to show empathy and charity toward those we care about who are not living according to the moral standards of the faith?
If you are a Christian and you are promoting pride out of sympathy for family and friends in the gay community, I understand. I really do. I encourage you to take a step back and reevaluate your approach in supporting your loved ones. No matter how much the movement tortures the word “pride” in an attempt to separate it from its true meaning, confirming anyone in sin is not charity. It is complicity. It is abandonment.
What is the solution to the promotion of the sin of pride? Devotion to the sublime, meek, and humble Heart of Jesus. “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto yours.”
The Heart of Jesus calls us to submit in all humility and deference and leads by example.
Jesus rarely directly confronted sinners. Instead, He treated them with tenderness and compassion. Whether they first approached Him in contrition for their sinfulness or something in Him led them to recognize their sin, never did He confirm them in their sin. “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) His most merciful heart is aflame with love and mercy for mankind. Would that we all could respond to His mercy and benevolence.
So very few of us are called to confront sin directly, but we are all called to pray for the conversion of sinners and for the conversion of the whole world. The heart is the universal symbol of love. How fitting that we devote ourselves to the Most Sacred Heart--a heart with an unquenchable fire of love for us all.
During the final days of this month of June, it would be a truly beneficial practice to examine ourselves in regards to the sin of pride. In what ways are we self-seeking, self-serving, self-absorbed and resistant to meekness and humility? We can inoculate ourselves against our prideful tendencies by consecrating ourselves to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In doing so, let us repent and resolve to serve Him with all due diligence and fervor. Finally, let us also make many acts of reparation to His Most Sacred Heart for the blasphemies, indifference, and ingratitude inflicted upon Him by our own sins and those of the whole world. We should reclaim the month of June for the Sacred Heart. By our prayers and example may the entire world be converted.
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart(composed by Saint Mary Alacoque)
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.
I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite Goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee.
I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants. Amen.
Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart
Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Thy Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on our Altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.
As recommended by a priest I trust implicitly, I've linked a resource for Catholics and other Christians experiencing same-sex attraction seeking to live chastely in accordance with Church teaching:
*note: I plan to re-publish many of my favorite articles here. The article above originally appeared on Fishers of Broken Men.
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