A common question people ask me is simply this: “What is it like to be priest?” So writes Father Todd Koenigsknecht, pictured, pastor of Sacred Heart in Hudson upon the parish's patronal feast day, June 12. He continues:
One way I would describe it is that being a priest is to see with the heart of God. It is a glimpse behind the veil when we see others as Jesus sees them. It is hard to put into words the love of God that we can experience at different moments in ministry. In the confessional and what it is like seeing with His heart this person who He loves so much, who He has seen suffering and is now permitted to draw near and heal. At Communion time and His joy at being able to be with this person who is receiving Him. At a funeral Mass as He holds a person and their family to His heart. At the baptismal font and His love for this little one and their family all being united in Him.
Parents have shared similar experiences where they see their children, and they are aware that it is not just their own love they are experiencing. They are aware of moving within a love far greater than themselves. It is as if they are seeing their children through another’s eyes. So it is to see with the heart of God.
What is that experience rooted in? It is rooted in what we celebrate in the Feast of the Sacred Heart. When Jesus revealed Himself and His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in a series of visions between the years of 1673-1675, His most famous invitation was this: “Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love”.
Why celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart? Why enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart in your home? Click here for US Bishops' resources, so you can see yourself and others as God sees you.
I encourage all of us to participate in the consecration to the Sacred Heart and to enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart in our homes if you have not already done so. Doing so you will have those moments when you will find yourself seeing with the heart of God.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.
