In this most precious ark of the Heart of Jesus is found the fullness of all charity. This, the gift par excellence of the Heart of Christ and of his Spirit, is what gave the Apostles and martyrs the strength to preach the evangelical truth and to bear witness to it even to the point of shedding their blood13. From there we draw the necessary firmness to make Christ known. It is in our dealings with Jesus that true apostolic zeal is ignited, the kind that is capable of enduring above apparent failures, the obstacles of an environment that sometimes seems to flee from Jesus.
A friend brings to a friend the best that he has. We possess nothing that can be compared to having known Jesus. Therefore, to our relatives, friends, and colleagues, we must make Christ known to them.
In the Heart of Jesus we must ignite our apostolic zeal for souls. In Him we find a burning furnace of charity for souls, as we pray in the Litany of the Sacred Heart. The furnace burns - commented Pope John Paul II - . By burning, it burns everything material, whether wood or another easily combustible substance.
The Heart of Jesus, the human Heart of Jesus, burns with the love that fills it. And this is the love for the Eternal Father and the love for men: for the adoptive daughters and sons.
The furnace, burning, little by little goes out. The Heart of Jesus, on the other hand, is an inextinguishable furnace. In this it resembles the burning bush in the book of Exodus, in which God revealed himself to Moses. The bush that burned with fire, but... was not consumed (Ex 3, 2).
Indeed, the love that burns in the Heart of Jesus is above all the Holy Spirit, in whom God-Son is eternally united to the Father. The Heart of Jesus, the human Heart of God-Man, is consumed by the living flame of Trinitarian Love, which never extinguishes.
Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity. The furnace, while burning, illuminates the darkness of the night and warms the bodies of the shivering passers-by.
Today we want to pray to the Mother of the Eternal Word, so that in the horizon of the life of each one of us the Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity, never ceases to burn. So that He may reveal to us the Love that never extinguishes or deteriorates, the Love that is eternal. So that it may illuminate the darkness of the earthly night and warm the hearts.
Giving thanks for the only love capable of transforming the world and human life, we turn with the Immaculate Virgin, at the moment of the Annunciation, to the Divine Heart that never ceases to be a burning furnace of charity. Burning: like the bush that Moses saw at the foot of Mount Horeb
HCD