Commentary on the Gospel of
Here, on this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a fitting piece from The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis:
Sunrise found Jesus and John the Baptist sitting above the Jordan in the hollow of a precipitous rock. All night long the two of them had held the world in their hands, deliberating what to do with it. Sometimes one took it, sometimes the other. The one’s face was severe and decisive: his arms went up and down as though he were actually holding an ax and striking. The other’s face was tame and irresolute, his eyes full of compassion.
“Isn’t love enough?” he asked.
“No,” answered the Baptist angrily. “The tree is rotten. God called to me and gave me the ax, which I then placed at the roots of the tree. I did my duty. Now you do yours: take the ax and strike!”
“If I were fire, I would burn: if I were a woodcutter, I would strike. But I am a heart, and I love.”
