Pastor’s Corner

Dear Sacred Heart Family,

Be number one!  How can someone become number one? Aren’t we supposed to avoid ambition? Our Lord shows us the way to victory: “œIf anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.“ 

The readings at this Sunday’s Mass show us how hatred reacts to Love Incarnate, how unhealed inner wounds contribute to our choices, and the Lord’s master plan for victory. The enemy resisted Jesus because He is pure Love. We tend to not trust that Love. Jesus understands us but points us to hopeful growth.

We come into the world good, but wounded. Life experience and our own choices contribute to healing or deepening these wounds.  We can find ourselves stuck in a vicious cycle of pain, which leads to negative choices, which leads to more pain. How can we escape?

The two guarantees for transformation are our individual choices and God’s loving Grace In Christ.  As we choose well, and avoid self-destructive options, we move forward. When we accept God’s Love in Christ, the Sacraments, and prayer, we are healed and transformed. 

This process finds opposition in our wounded nature, our resistance to grace, and the tendency to stay stuck in old habits. 

By choosing to serve others, this corrects our self-focused tendencies and the traps of remaining in our limited perspective. Jesus indeed wants us to win, but in a way that draws what is best from our hearts. While initially and understandably scary, the secret is to surrender to His Sacred Heart which is overflowing with compassionate Mercy for us.  Serving others first, gradual openness to His Love, and patience with ourselves will transform us into the people He knows we are capable of becoming. 

Let us serve the Lord in everyone, and watch the Lord bring us to victory.  Before we couldn’t do this well; with the free gifts of God’s Love and Our Lady, can do this!  Be number one!

In Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart,

Rev. Bjorn Lundberg
Pastor

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