Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Zeale for America Rally, a patriotic celebration of faith and country
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
La Crosse, Wisconsin
12 June 2026
Dt 7, 6-11
Ps 103, 1-2. 3-4. 6-7. 8. 10
1 Jn 4, 7-16
Mt 11, 25-30
Homily
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How fitting that, on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we offer our solemn act of thanksgiving to almighty God for His many blessings upon our nation from the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 250 years ago, until today! How providential that, on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we consecrate our homeland to the Sacred Heart and make the act of reparation for the indifference and offense with which we have so often responded, in our nation, to the love of the Sacred Heart!
The glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus is the most powerful sign of the mystery of God’s immeasurable and unceasing love of us, first in our family and then in our homeland. Moses told the Chosen People that they were altogether special to the Lord, not because of any greatness of their own but, in his words, “it is because the Lord loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, ….”[1]
The unfathomable depth of God the Father’s love of us has been fully revealed to us with the sending of His only-begotten Son in our human flesh. Out of the pure and selfless love of God the Father, God the Son became man to save us from our sins and their deadly fruits, and to make of our hearts the dwelling place of God the Holy Spirit. The Heart of Jesus seated at the right hand of God the Father in glory never ceases to beat with love for us, drawing all hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of His Virgin Mother, to His Heart and pouring forth from His Heart into our hearts, without measure, the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit. As citizens of our nation, we are dedicated to communicating the love of the Heart of Jesus in our families and homeland, so that Christ may reign in all hearts from His glorious-pierced Heart. Resting our hearts in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are devoted to the service of the truth and justice which is the irreplaceable condition of the freedom – “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”[2] – sought by the Declaration of Independence. Mary Immaculate, under whose heart God the Son took a human heart through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, the Patroness of the United States of America, who is Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of All the Americas, leads us to give our hearts completely, one with hers, to the Heart of her Divine Son. She takes us to Our Lord, as she took the wine stewards at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and instructs us: “Do whatever he tells you.”[3]
Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son Incarnate, in His every word and deed, has manifested the love of God the Father for men, without boundary, and, in a particular way, for those who are in any way burdened, for those who, in the eyes of the world, are “the least … brethren.”[4] That love had a most eloquent expression in the word which He spoke, as He was dying on the Cross, to express His all-compassionate love: “I thirst.”[5] Intimately united to His word is the piercing of His Sacred Side and Heart by the Roman centurion. From His glorious-pierced Heart flowed blood and water, the sign of the immeasurable and unceasing outpouring of the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit into our souls. As Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist declares:
So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.[6]
It is faith in God and in His love for us that has inspired devout Catholics to love their homeland and to serve the common good of the nation at great sacrifice, even at the sacrifice of their lives, over the past 250 years.
Contemplating the image of the pierced Heart of Jesus, we read in His eyes His thirst for souls, His invitation to come to Him, to give our hearts completely to Him, to place our poor, doubtful and fearful hearts into His glorious pierced Heart:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. [7]
Our Lord Jesus Christ invites us to come to Him by means of the image of His divine and human Heart – pierced by the centurion’s spear, surrounded with the crown of thorns, ever aflame with love for us. He looks upon us with love, drawing us to love Him, in return, with all our heart. He looks upon dedicated citizens of our homeland with affection, for He knows the hidden and sometimes little appreciated service which the exercise of the virtue of patriotism requires to safeguard the most sacred goods of the nation and to rectify injustices, so that His truth and love may shine forth for the good of all in the Church and in the world.
Through faith and the grace of Baptism and Confirmation, we experience the faithful love of God our Father for us in His only-begotten Son Who invites us to be one in heart with Him, to share His very Life given to us in the Church in which He dwells through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our souls. In the Holy Mass, we receive, from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, the most perfect gift of God’s love: the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Son. In the Holy Eucharist, our Lord Jesus Christ comes into our midst; Heaven descends to earth, to make sacramentally present for us the total outpouring of Christ’s life for us on Calvary. In the union of our hearts with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which reaches its perfection in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our hearts are purified and strengthened with Divine Love – the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit, so that we may take up, with our Lord Jesus Christ, the yoke of Divine Love for all men, without boundary. With the help of divine grace, pouring forth immeasurably and unceasingly from the Heart of Jesus into our hearts, the “burden” of our mission of pure and selfless love, which seems so formidable and, even at times, impossible, becomes possible. It becomes, in fact, “light.”[8] There is no greater gift that we can give to our family and our homeland than the gift of our heart, one with the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mother of God, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Christ bids us, as faithful and grateful citizens, to place our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, completely into His glorious-pierced Heart, so that they may shower the pure and selfless love of Christ upon our nation, so that our hearts may become “rivers of living water” for our brothers and sisters. The consecration of our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be most efficacious to the degree that the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is enthroned and the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is enshrined in our homes, asking Christ the King to rule over every heart in every home. If you have not already enthroned the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home, together with the enshrinement of the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I invite you to obtain a copy of my book, The Virtue of Patriotism,[9] published by the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe here, in which are found the prayers of preparation and the ceremony for the Enthronement.
Our manifestation of love from the Heart of Jesus in our family and in the nation will bear its greatest fruit in the giving of hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to Christ the King that He may reigns in all hearts. Resting our hearts, with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we will be purified and strengthened to serve truth and its fruit, freedom, in our nation, a service which, although formidable and at times seemingly impossible, becomes possible, because Christ Who is all just and loving carries with us every burden of our service.
As we are blessed today to make the consecration of our homeland to the Sacred Heart, let us also pray for Zeale for America 250, a work of Catholic Vote, and for its sponsors, that the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may make faithful and fruitful all its initiatives for the sanctification of our nation. May the fruits of today’s Holy Mass be manifest, in a special way, in tomorrow’s Prayer Rally for our homeland.
Let us now lift up our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, opened for us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. With the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may our hearts belong totally to Our Lord Jesus, so that He may purify, heal and strengthen them with His truth and love. As we unite our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, let us ask God’s blessing, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, upon our nation and her citizens. Let us pray, in a special way, that the holy time which God has granted us to be together today and tomorrow will strengthen us in the meekness and humility of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the service of all our brothers and sisters in truth and love.
Long live Christ the King! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Dt 7, 8.
[2] “The Declaration of Independence: Action of Second Continental Congress, 4 July 1776,” in The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2002), p. 81.
[3] Jn 2, 5.
[4] Mt 25, 40.
[5] Jn 19, 28.
[6] 1 Jn 4, 16.
[7] Mt 11, 28-30.
[8] Mt 11, 30.
[9] Cf. Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, The Virtue of Patriotism, Special Jubilee Edition (La Crosse, WI: The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 2026).