The final two weeks of Lent have traditionally been called Passiontide, as the character of these final days of Lent invite us to focus more intensely on the Passion of Jesus Christ. We can see this in the prayers of the Mass during this time. For the first four weeks of Lent, the Prefaces of Lent I-IV are used, but for the next two weeks, the Church shifts to Prefaces of the Passion of the Lord. Here is a part of one of those Prefaces:
For through the saving Passion of your Son the whole world has received a heart to confess the infinite power of your majesty, since by the wondrous power of the Cross your judgment on the world is now revealed and the authority of Christ crucified. (Preface I of the Passion of the Lord)
Given our theme of the Sacred Heart of Jesus during this series, I am drawn to the mention of our receiving a renewed heart through the saving Passion of Jesus. We know that the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is connected to His heart being pierced after He had died on the Cross, so His Passion is very much at the center of this devotion. In His Passion, Jesus demonstrates the depth of His love for us. This is expressed beautifully by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans which we heard on the 3rd Sunday of Lent: “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)
We proclaim Jesus to be the Lamb of God, and He makes Himself the innocent victim for our sins, so that we might not remain in the slavery of sin. Through His Passion, we have an outlet by which our hearts, wounded by our sins, can be renewed and set free – first in Baptism, and then every time we come to Him in confession. Therefore, I have chosen the following invocation from the Litany of the Sacred Heart for this week:
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sin, have mercy on us
This can be a good aspiration, or short prayer, that we have ready on our lips during these final days of Lent. Perhaps we can modify it slightly to make it more personal, saying: “Heart of Jesus, victim for my sins, have mercy on me!” This will help to foster a sense of the personal love that Jesus had while on the Cross for each of us, not just those around Him at the time, but for everybody who has ever come into existence, and all who have yet to come into existence. The Passion He endured was for all, for as St. Paul reminds, He “desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:4)