Blazing Heart

Today marks both the final day of Pride month and the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrating life under the ‘rainbow’ pales in comparison to the fiery, constant love of Him who was pierced so that we can be healed.

Sure, it can be easy to grow disheartened. The larger-LGBQT+ agenda seems ubiquitous. As a former public-school teacher, it broke my heart to attend ‘diversity’ assemblies where vulnerable young people were urged to profess new pronouns and explore fluid orientations to roaring applause.

Yet banal affirmations of ‘be who you want’ and ‘love is love’ are uninspiring; these are vague, unhelpful directives to anyone trying to navigate fractured desires. They don’t engender life.

Far more enlivening is the message of the Sacred Heart, Christ’s endless and ardent love for all of us. His love reminds us of who we truly are (man and woman, made for the other) and provides the means to attain it. This envisions and sparks the desire ‘to become what you are’ (St. John Paul II).

Sometimes, the Church muddles and even obscures this message. I recall a conversation I had with classmates from my (quite conservative and orthodox) Protestant seminary. Under the spell of Hill’s ‘Washed and Waiting,’ my peers—future and current pastors—extolled the beauty and nobility of ‘gay’ Christians.

Unsettled yet undaunted, I proclaimed to them the power of Jesus to transform lives. Because the ‘same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead’ (Rom. 6:10) lives in us, we can be resurrected into the fullness of God’s plan for our sexuality. How powerful! How hopeful! This is the Gospel message, this is the Kingdom call that turns hearts back to His heart, that shatters the low ceiling of ‘gay’ Christianity and ushers these ones into the fruitful expanse of Jesus’ healing work.

My life bears witness to this power of Christ. As Andrew’s daughter, I am the living fruit of Christ’s power to transform. Thank God my dad didn’t settle for LQBTQ+ pride or ‘gay’ Christianity! Thank God for those Kingdom men and women around him who proclaimed the full potency of the Gospel!

Let us act like Kingdom people! Church, we can do better! The Sacred Heart of Jesus is propulsive and magnetizing, a refuge for the broken. Let’s overflow with Almighty Mercy to a lost generation. Pride Month ends but we are just beginning.