I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.
When we are in union with Jesus, we can endure the most difficult moments of life. Our endurance allows Christ to transform us and experience the peace of the Lord. Jesus wants His heart to be where we go for our strength and comfort. We grow closer to His heart by speaking to Our Lord in prayer, by showing Him we love Him through offering up these hard times, and living a virtuous life. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who are burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden light.” Jesus is inviting us to learn from Him and His meek and humble heart. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque said, “This divine and loving Heart is my hope and my refuge; its merits are my salvation, my life and my resurrection.” Jesus’ heart can also be our hope and refuge.
In the book Secrets of the Sacred Heart, Emily Jaminet shares: When life tosses us lemons, do we make lemonade? Without sugar, the sourness of the lemon is overpowering. The love of God is like sugar that transforms our hearts so that our suffering in life has a kind of sweetness, meaning, and purpose. God’s love renews, it inspires, it restores, it transforms and it strengthens our endurance.” Jesus shares with us where we go for our rest, it is His merciful and loving heart. “For God will hide me in His shelter in time of trouble, He will conceal me in the cover of His tent; and set me high upon a rock.” (Ps 27:5)
Taking refuge in the Sacred Heart is rooted in the virtue of hope. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and not relying on our own strength, but on the grace of the Holy Spirit (CCC, 1817).
