By the late 17th century, Catholics had become so convinced of their own unworthiness that they thought no one was worthy to receive the sacraments or be loved by God. We were supposedly too sinful. Into this misplaced understanding of human weakness, Jesus himself came and appeared to St. Margaret Mary. He revealed the devotion to the love of his Sacred Heart. Jesus did not want to distance himself from us because of our weakness. Just the opposite. Our sins are the occasion for Jesus to show his great love and mercy. He desires to love like this, even though he knows we will fail him at times.
Love is dangerous. It involves risk and vulnerability. To love someone means opening yourself up to being hurt. Still, we need to take this risk. Jesus did. It wasn’t even a risk for him… he knew we would fail him. Our mission is to love like Jesus and that means we can’t hold back and “play it safe.”
In my priesthood, I have had to move many times when I really just wanted to settle down. It would be understandable to decide at a new place that I was just going to put up barriers and remain “distant” from people. It would be safer. After all, I’ll probably just get moved again, so what’s the use in forming relationships? Yet this is not what Jesus wants, especially not from his priests. He doesn’t want us to take the “safe” and distant, approach. Jesus chooses to love us and mix it up in our broken world. We are called to do the same.
As I leave St. Michael’s, I am sad that our time together was short. I really did invest and form relationships, and this makes it hard to leave. But I’m glad to have made these relationships and glad that I didn’t “play it safe.” I know it’s also not easy for the people to keep changing priests. To the people of St. Michael’s, thank you for loving me and allowing me to love you.