Hearts in Sync

Adjusting our hearts to beat with Jesus’ Heart

02/09/2025

Mark 6:30-34 The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

I just want to share a few thoughts on a touching phrase in the gospel this morning. We read: “When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” The beautiful phrase I want to zero in on is “his heart was moved with pity.”

Last week I was visiting my parents on Friday and stopped to talk to their neighbor who was enjoying the warm weather to trim his trees. He shared his concern about immigrants and the mass deportations. He said these migrants are not here to do anything criminal but only feed their families and work hard.

And then I thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes when he shared, “My heart breaks for them.” Ron attends the Methodist Church and said he could tell his pastor was struggling the previous Sunday in his sermon to be more vocal in support of immigrants because he feared push-back from some of his congregation.

And I immediately thought: “Whew! Good thing I don’t have to worry about that in the Catholic Church!” But Ron’s loving heart beat with the same rhythm as Jesus’ tender heart because both hearts were moved with pity for the vast crowds.

But I believe this snapshot of our Savior’s heart is his basic disposition toward humanity at all times. What do I mean? Well, ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, Jesus’ heart began to feel pity for humanity. At that moment onward we became spiritually like sheep without a shepherd because we wandered away from the Shepherd, God.

Then throughout the Old Testament and even after he comes in the New Testament, Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for us. Why? Because even though he has come to be our Good Shepherd, we prefer to be the lost sheep wandering away and live sinfully like sheep without a shepherd.

And so too throughout the 2,000 year history of the Church, while there are some saints who stay close to the Shepherd, like Ron, the vast majority of Christians prefer to be sheep without the Shepherd and Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for them.

By the way, if we kept reading in Mark 6, the next episode is Jesus feeding the vast crowd with the miraculous multiplication of loaves. That is a clear reference to the Eucharist, when Jesus will feed not 5,000 but all humanity with himself. And what is the Eucharist but Jesus giving us a taste of his own heart? You see, Jesus wants our hearts to beat in rhythm with his heart, like my parents’ neighbor, Ron’s heart does.

This coming Lent I want to offer you an opportunity to get your heart to beat in sync with our Savior’s heart. I will share five presentations on Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body on Monday evenings at 6 p.m. The pope-saint’s teaching is vast and deep and rich, and we will hardly do it justice in five presentations. People are spending their lifetime studying it, and it will be well-worth our efforts.

The Theology of the Body was originally a book of 532 pages the pope wrote while he was still the cardinal-archbishop of Krakow, Poland. And I believe he is trying to update and modernize the language of faith so it makes more sense to our modern minds and feels more compelling and moving to our modern hearts.

But at the heart of the pope’s teaching is the human heart itself. How so? Well, first he explains why our hearts are out of sync with Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and second he shows us how to get our hearts back in sync with Jesus’ heart.

Basically, John Paul wants to give us a heart ablation by curing the irregular heartbeat we suffer from because of sin and help our hearts beat more like Jesus’ heart. The Theology of the Body is a spiritual heart ablation: it will hurt but then it will heal.

Talking with my parents’ neighbor Ron last week I saw a poignant example of a man whose heart beats in sync with Jesus’ Sacred Heart. If you are suffering from an irregular heartbeat – like most of us are – come learn to love with the Theology of the Body. Then our hearts, too, will more often be moved with pity when we behold the vast crowd who were like sheep without a shepherd.

Praised be Jesus Christ!