Sermon about the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart

Introduction

Among the promises which Our Lord Jesus mentioned to St Margaret Mary, there is this one: “I will bless every house in which the picture of My Heart shall be exposed and honoured”. I am sure that all of you want your house to be blessed by Our Lord, but have you given the Sacred Heart a place of predilection in your home, especially by doing as a family this beautiful and meaningful ceremony called the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart?

Today I will speak about this ceremony and its meaning, in view of giving you the desire of doing it if not done yet, or of renewing in your heart your commitment to the Sacred Heart if you have done it already.

The ceremony itself

Let us see first the ceremony itself how it is done. This ceremony is a family ceremony, so all the family members must be present as much as possible; you can also invite your close friends. Before the ceremony, a kind of small altar is set up in the main room of the home, decorated with flowers and candles. On this altar is prepared a picture or statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Outside the home, at the entrance door, a picture or statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is prepared.

Now the ceremony. The priest firstly blesses the house in order to prepare that place and the family members to receive the graces which Our Lord Jesus wants to bestow on them. Then everybody moves out, at the entrance door, in front of the picture of the Sacred Heart. The picture means Our Lord Jesus who has arrived at the house and the whole family goes out to welcome Him. Then the priest blesses the picture of the Sacred Heart making this picture be a sacramental: every time people will look at that picture with love, they will receive from Our Lord special actual graces. Now the family introduces solemnly Our Lord Jesus in their home to make Him take possession of it as His own home. So, the head of the family takes the picture of the Sacred Heart, his family and friends form behind him a mini procession, and all together move in the home singing some song in the honor of the Sacred Heart, like Sweet Heart of Jesus. The procession moves around the house as to show to Our Lord Jesus His new property and at last goes to the small altar which had been prepared, and the head of the family sets the picture on the altar; candles are lit on. This action is properly the enthronement: Our Lord Jesus is symbolically declared to be the king, the dearest Guest, the intimate Friend of the family. Then immediately as an acknowledgment of His authority, the family together recite the Creed. Then people sit and the priest reminds them briefly of the meaning of the ceremony, of their commitment towards the Sacred heart, and of the promises of Our Lord Jesus for those who honour Him. After this, the family kneeling consecrates itself, including all the departed family members, first to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and then to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the end, the priest, on behalf of Our Lord Jesus blesses the family. It is over.

The meaning of the Enthronement

Let us see now more in details the meaning of this ceremony. “Enthronement” means to “establish somebody on the throne”, in other words to declare somebody to be the king. Our Lord Jesus is a king: because He is of the family of King David, but much more than this because He is God the Son and He created the whole universe, everything belongs to Him, everything is under His Divine power and authority. But also, Our Lord has redeemed us, that is to say, as we were sinners condemned to hell, He paid by His Passion the price of our souls and we have become His property. Our Lord Jesus is objectively the king of all humans without any exception by reason of His Divinity and of His Passion. And if He is the king of all people, it means that He has the power to make laws for all of them, the power to govern them and the power to judge them. Sad to say, many people refuse to acknowledge Our Lord’s kingship and following their foolish concupiscences, they run to their eternal damnation.

To do the ceremony of the Enthronement is on the contrary to acknowledge officially, not only as individuals but as a family, that Our Lord Jesus is our king. It is to acknowledge that He has the authority to make laws and therefore we promise to obey them. It is to acknowledge that He is the One who has been appointed by God to govern us in our life on earth, to lead us in our spiritual battle against the devil and his followers, and to introduce us in the eternal life, and therefore we promise to be faithful to Him. To do the ceremony of Enthronement is to acknowledge that Christ is the one who will judge us at the end of our life, punishing us for our sins and rewarding us for our good actions and fidelity and therefore we place our hope in Him.

The family commits itself into the service of the King of kings, it listens and responds to the call of Christ the king as expressed by St Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises: “It is my will to conquer the whole world and all my enemies and thus to enter into the glory of My Father. Therefore, whosoever wishes to join Me in this enterprise, must be willing to labour with Me, that by following Me in suffering, he may follow Me in glory.”

Enthronement of the Sacred Heart

Now, take note that the ceremony of the Enthronement is not the Enthronement of Jesus the Son of God, or of Jesus the Redeemer, but the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart.

As explained last Friday, the heart is the symbol of love and the Sacred Heart of Jesus symbolises His human and divine love. Our Lord Jesus wants to reign over our souls, our heart, our homes and our countries by love, that is to say that He wants us to choose Him freely, to submit ourselves to His authority willingly. And the ceremony of the Enthronement during which a family introduces solemnly Our Lord in its home and gives Him the place of honor, is the response of love to Him, it is to proclaim: yes, we choose you! Yes, we want You! Yes, we love You! This home is your home, our family is your family!

The ceremony of the Enthronement is therefore like the sealing of a friendship between Our Lord Jesus and a family. There is a friendship when there is a reciprocal benevolence: a friend wants the good of his friend and reciprocally. Our Lord Jesus wants our eternal salvation and He offers us all the graces we need to get it: He gives us sanctifying grace, this life of God in us, He gives us all the actual graces or helps which we need to overcome temptations, to practice the virtues, to go through all the dangers and trials of this life. In return, we must want the good of Christ, that is to say His glory on earth as it is in Heaven, starting by His glory in our own soul, in our own family: to keep away from mortal sin, banishing from our homes anything which could displease Our Lord.

That friendship between Christ and a family, sealed by the ceremony of the Enthronement, makes Our Lord Jesus become a so close friend that actually He becomes like a family member and He wants to be treated as such: He wants to be associated with the joys and the sufferings of the family. And that is why when there is a new child in the family, a birthday, when a family member rejoices because of the success of his undertakings; when there is on the contrary a trial, a sickness, a death, the family should go in front of the Sacred Heart and share with Him in all simplicity its joys and sorrows. And Our Lord Jesus, as a true friend will rejoice and bless, will console and strengthen. When Our Lord was living on earth, there was such a family to which He was united by the ties of a true and sweet friendship: it was the family of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Their house in Bethany was His house. When Lazarus got sick, immediately Martha and Mary informed Jesus and when Lazarus was dead, they shared with Him their sorrow: and Jesus cried with them, and He consoled them, and for them He performed the most extraordinary miracle than ever: He brought back to life Lazarus who was already decaying. There is nothing which Our Lord Jesus cannot do for His friends!

The friendship established officially between Christ and a family by the ceremony of the Enthronement brings another consequence. The effect of a friendship is to unite, to make the friends become like one soul: they think the same, they want the same, and whatever is done to one is done to the other, the joys of the one are the joys of the other, the sorrows of the one are the sorrows of the other. Therefore a family who acknowledge Our Lord Jesus as a true friend, a family member, if it rejoices at the glory of Christ in heaven, also it cannot remain indifferent to all the blasphemies and offenses which are committed on earth against Him. And consequently, such family strives to compensate for such iniquities by offering to Our Lord prayers and penances and sacrifices and good works for the love of Him.

Conclusion:

You understand then that the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in one’s home is not simply to bless a picture of the Sacred Heart. It is a commitment, it is the introduction of somebody real, alive and active, in one’s family, although we cannot see Him: Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who would not like to have as a close family friend the richest man of the world, the most powerful, the most scholar, the wisest, the most virtuous man of the world? But Our Lord Jesus is all of these and much more than that: what are we waiting for to introduce Him officially in our family as our king, our friend, our family member? He says in the Apocalypse: “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Apoc 3;20): could you imagine a sweetest invitation to open the door of your home? May Mary Immaculate make us respond generously to that invitation, for the glory of her Son Jesus Christ and for our own happiness.