Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 12 June 2026
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ><}}}*> 1 John 4:7-16 ><}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
You read it right. The title of our reflection on this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the same title of The Smiths’ 1984 classic Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.
It is one of my all-time favorite songs, my theme song after graduating in 1986, landing on my first and only job as it captured my exact situation of the period:
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But Heaven knows, I'm miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And Heaven knows I'm miserable now
Since then, the song has remained relevant with me especially after learning how the young generation appreciate a lot The Smiths that I have used their other music in my spiritual conferences and recollections as a university chaplain. That’s why during our Sacred Heart Novena in our university chapel, the same song kept playing at the back of my mind especially while meditating on the second reading on this feast of the Sacred Heart.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins (1 John 4:7-8, 10).
How lovely and simple is our second reading from the letter of the beloved disciple, John who gives us the deepest theological grounding of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: “God is love.”
Pope Benedict XVI used to say Christianity is the only religion is the world with that kind of declaration about God; it is not merely that God loves but that love is God’s very nature!
And what does it mean to us? The older I get, the more I realize and experience that I live because of God’s love: it is the reason I wake up and sleep; why I strive to be my best in everything despite my weaknesses and limitations; why I still love even if I am not loved or misunderstood and even maligned; why I still go in living even if I am sure one day I shall die.
We live because we are loved by God.
Simply loved because he is love himself.
Not because we are good or does something important or fulfills his divine will.
God loves because it is his very essence as Moses reminds us in the first reading, “It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you” (Dt.7:7-8).
Hence, John insists that in this is love – not that we loved God but that God loved us first. Our love for God and for one another is a response to his very love.
Would there be any difference at all to begin with God’s initiative rather than our own love?
Surely a lot. Even unthinkable to just rely on our own love and initiative because it is never enough for we humans are imperfect.
Human love is imperfect; only God can love us perfectly. That is why love is always initiated by God. We can’t love on our own. No matter how good and holy we may be. Mayroon palaging maisusumbat ating minamahal sa ating pagmamahal. Sa Diyos wala.
That is why I love the song Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.
We humans are so miserable in loving but because of our loving God who is love himself, we are able to love, to keep on loving despite and in spite of everything because to live is to love. Jesus came so that we can continue to love, to keep loving even if the world tells us it is foolish. Even if people don’t care at all for us and do not love us as Morrissey sang it so well in the chorus of Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now:
In my life, why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die?
Very true – fascinatingly – is Morrissey’s third chorus line because he openly brings out the usual thoughts we hide in dealing with people we hate or do not like:
In my life, why do I smile
At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?
Funny is it not? But very true! And that’s because of God’s love in us, of his grace that despite the many people who hurt us and do not love us, we still choose to be loving and kind, at least smile at them than stoop down to their low levels.
The feast of the Sacred Heart is an invitation to look at the heart of God – at what God most desires for us and for our world. It is not a sentimental image but a radical one: a love that goes all the way to the Cross.
God knows how miserable we are these days when things like positions and power, fame and wealth have become more important than persons to be loved and cared for. Despite the many technological advances we have achieved that promised to make life easier, the opposite proved to be more true. Life has been reduced to mere lifestyle, persons have become objects to be possessed by companies and brands, even by schools!
Today’s celebration of the Sacred Heart feast invites us to go back to Jesus who knows fully well our miseries; songs like Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now can identify and express them to offer respite for a while but only Jesus can uplift and change us for he alone truly loves us because he is love himself.
“Come to me, all you who labor and 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 selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Amid the many miseries we are all going through these days, let us take time today to respond to the love of Jesus Christ in the most honest and true ways that will make others experience his love. Many times, it is the simplest gesture of just being gentle with others in words and in deeds, of not adding to their many burdens in life. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like yours! Amen.
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