Hearing the good news that the Catholic bishops of the United States, acknowledging the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, consecrated our country to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we can only rejoice that Christ allows us another opportunity to thank him, beg his continued assistance and give ourselves entirely to him.
The incredible Heart of Jesus is both our inspiration and refuge. We learn so much from Christ, and we run to him for strength and protection. And we delight that we are his possession and he is ours.
In our era where a hyper-independence is promoted that ignores the necessary help we can find only in God, we must begin again with a renewed love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a fresh appreciation for our need for him. When reciting the Litany of the Sacred Heart, we profess Jesus’ abundant goodness: “Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful.” The Son of God and Son of Mary desires that we live in union with him here on earth and one day forever in heaven. He is patient with us sinners and offers his mercy to us.
The Heart of Christ is our indescribable treasure. He is our God who loves us, sustains us, nourishes us with his body, blood, soul and divinity in the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and forgives our transgressions in the sacrament of penance.
Where would we be without the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Hopelessly lost — forever.
Pope Venerable Pius XII, in his 1956 encyclical entitled, “On Devotion to the Sacred Heart” (Haurietis Aquas), wrote that devotion to the Sacred Heart is vital and rests on “solid foundations” (19): Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church and theologians. All three demonstrate that the Heart of Christ “is the natural sign and symbol of His boundless love for the human race.” (22)
Pope Pius, quoting his predecessor Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), called the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus “the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return.” (ibid.)
Our gift to the Heart of Christ is our self-donation, that is, as each of us prays in the Morning Offering: “my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.”
Christ has given his entire self to us. Now, let us do likewise.
It is Our Lady who accompanies us as we consecrate ourselves to her Divine Son’s Sacred Heart. In “Mary in Our Life” (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1954), Father William G. Most, Ph.D. (1914-99), wrote that Pope Pius XI (1922-39), in his encyclical “Miserentissimus Redemptor” (May 8, 1928), emphasized the importance of authentic devotion to the Most Sacred Heart. “True devotion to the Sacred Heart consists in two things, which can readily be reduced to one — consecration and reparation.” (page 205) Consecration means that we “dedicate ourselves and all that we have to the Divine Heart of Jesus” (ibid.); by our love we return to the Creator the love that he bestowed on us. Following consecration is reparation, which is necessary “if that Uncreated Love (that is, God Himself) has been neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offenses.” (page 206)
With our bishops and all our brothers and sisters, we surrender ourselves to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In him alone is our salvation.
Msgr. Mangan is on the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
Corpus Christi