The Sacred Heart of Jesus: Everything is Grace

Dear friends,

This month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I'm drawn to meditating on the infinite love of God and its ability to use even our sins and imperfections for His glory.

What is the glory of God? St. Irenaeus famously wrote, "The glory of God is man fully alive." God is glorified when we become the people He created us to be—not through our own perfection, but through His grace working in us.

Lately, I've been noticing something my parents tried to help me understand when I was little: difficult situations almost always appear worse at night, when we're tired after a long day.

The Lord has been showing me that He's working in my favor while I sleep. Often, it becomes evident when I wake in the morning and a problem that seemed unsolvable the night before suddenly has a clear path forward.

I'm not talking about big problems, of course. In my experience, those usually require time, patience, and the resolution of a myriad of smaller issues that contribute to the larger conflict.

Sometimes, the problem is my own insistence on solving things the way I'm used to, without opening my eyes to the wisdom others might have to share. This is one of the reasons we need each other. Together, we're better—as long as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

One of my favorite truths about repentance is that it doesn't require us to shame ourselves for our faults. Guilt is an emotion meant to draw our attention to behavior that needs healing, but at its root, repentance simply means a change of mind. If the Lord forgave His tormentors because "they know not what they do," then every new insight into why we do the things we do—or how our actions affect others—becomes an opportunity to change our minds and turn more fully toward Him.

Often, the insights that help us change our minds come through struggle, tension, disappointment, or misunderstanding. And this, I believe, is one of the clearest examples of St. Thérèse of Lisieux's conviction that everything is grace.

Once the Lord grants us the light to see ourselves or a situation more clearly, every subsequent choice we make becomes an opportunity to quietly rewire our hearts in favor of the will of God, which, as the opening prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet reminds us, "is Love and Mercy itself."

When we open ourselves to learn from our mistakes, we open ourselves to an entirely new realm of possibilities—the realm of Infinite Love.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus help us recognize His grace at work in every circumstance, and may we have the courage to cooperate with it, one small choice at a time.

In Christ,

Lily