During a recent visit to my parish Church, my Protestant
friend was interested in our Sacred Heart shrine and the
meaning behind the devotion. I told her that the Sacred Heart
was a sign of the love of Jesus for us. Is there anything
else I should say? What about the history of the devotion?
A reader in Alexandria Actually, your answer "hits the
nail on the head." The Catechism, quoting Pope Pius
XII's beautiful encyclical "Haurietis Aquas" (1956),
states, "[Jesus] has loved us all with a human heart. For
this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins
and for our salvation, 'is quite rightly considered the chief
sign and symbol of that ... love with which the divine
Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human
beings' without exception (No. 478). To appreciate this rich
symbolism of the heart, we must remember in Judaism that the
word heart represented the core of the person. While
recognized as the principle life organ, the heart was also
considered the center of all spiritual activity. Here was the
seat of all emotion, especially love. As the psalms express,
God speaks to a person in his heart and there probes him.
This notion of the heart is clear when we read the words of
Deuteronomy 6:5-6: "Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your
God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin
on you today." The heart has even greater depth when
contemplated in light of the incarnation. We believe that
Jesus Christ, second person of the Holy Trinity and
consubstantial with the Father, entered this world taking on
our human flesh true God became also true man. While
Jesus' heart obviously served a physiological function,
spiritually His sacred heart also represents love: the divine
love our Lord shares with the Father and Holy Spirit in the
Trinity; the perfect, divine love which God has for us; and
the genuine human love Christ felt in His human nature. I
think one of the most beautiful passages of the Gospels is
our Lord saying, "Come to me, all you who are weary and find
life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon
your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and
my burden light" (Mt 11:28-30). Therefore, while meditating
on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are called to share in the
love of the Lord and strive to express our own genuine love
for God, ourselves, and our neighbors. Throughout the Gospel,
we see the outpouring of Jesus' love from His heart, whether
in the miracle stories, the reconciliation of sinners, or the
compassion for the grieving. Even on the cross, our Lord
poured out His love for us: there the soldier's lance pierced
His side and out flowed blood and water (Jn 19:34). St.
Bonaventure said the Church was born from the wounded side of
the Lord with the blood and water representing the Sacraments
of the Holy Eucharist and Baptism. The early Church Fathers
clearly cherished this meaning of the Sacred Heart of our
Lord. St. Justin Martyr (d. 165), in his Dialogue with the
Jew Trypho said, "We Christians are the true Israel which
springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as
from a rock." Likewise, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202) said,
"The Church is the fountain of the living water that flows to
us from the Heart of Christ" ("Adversus Haereses").
Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) added, "John, who rested blissfully
on the breast of our Lord, was inebriated with the Holy
Spirit, from the Heart of all creating Wisdom he quaffed an
understanding which transcends that of any creature."
Although these are just a few brief examples from the times
of the early Church, we find a profound respect for the
Sacred Heart of our Lord as a font of His love which gave
birth to the Church and continues to nourish its members. The
devotion continued to grow during the Middles Ages and in
1353 Pope Innocent VI instituted a Mass honoring the mystery
of the Sacred Heart. During the age of the Protestant
movement, devotion to the Sacred Heart was practiced in hope
of restoring peace to a world shattered by political and
religious persecution. Shortly thereafter, the devotion
escalated due to the fervor surrounding the apparitions of
our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90). For
example, on Dec. 27, 1673, our Lord revealed, "My Divine
Heart is so passionately inflamed with love ... that, not
being able any longer to contain within Itself the flames of
Its ardent charity, It must let them spread abroad through
your means, and manifest Itself to man, that they may be
enriched with Its precious treasures which I unfold to you,
and which contain the sanctifying and salutary graces that
are necessary to hold them back from the abyss of ruin." The
four apparitions provided the catalyst for the promotion of
the devotion to the Sacred Heart: a feast day in honor of the
Sacred Heart and the offering of our Lord's saving grace and
friendship if the individual attended Mass and received Holy
Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays of the month. In
1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart
of Jesus. Since then, his successors have exhorted the
faithful to turn to the Sacred Heart and make acts of
personal consecration. They have also begged the faithful to
offer prayers and penances to the Sacred Heart in reparation
for the many sins of the world. Considering our present day
and age, the temptations and sins of this world, the growing
apathy and secularism, we too should turn again in loving
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ask Him to pour
forth His grace. We must strive to make our hearts like His
own, for He said, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they
shall see God" (Mt 5:8). May we remember the words of the
Preface of the Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus: "Lifted high on the Cross, Christ gave His life for
us, so much did He love us. From His wounded side flowed
blood and water, the fountain of sacramental life in the
Church. To His open heart the Savior invites all men, to draw
water in joy from the springs of salvation." Fr.
Saunders is pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish and dean of
the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College, both
in Alexandria. Copyright ?1999 Arlington Catholic
Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.