Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
The world has a way of hardening us, toughening us. Part of the beauty of innocence is its vulnerability, but that means the freedom to be wounded, and few are able to maintain that freedom. Instead, the way most people process life experience leads to a steady hardening of the heart, until, if we are not careful, we become quite sclerotic.
Our Lord bids us be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” He sends us out as sheep among wolves, but never tells us to become wolves. Rather, his own vulnerability invites us to share His gentleness of heart, and guarantees that our very salvation comes through wounds, our wounds united with His. He is the Lamb of God.
And so the Lord promises: “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.” May we cooperate with His desire for us to share in His Sacred Heart – a heart pierced, and pierced because of His generosity in being vulnerable to the “slings and darts of outrageous fortune.”