Reflecting on the Sacred Heart
Every summer, specifically June 11th, we as a Church celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As many know, the solemnity traces back to the appearance of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque in the 17th century. Among his messages, Jesus expressed his desire for a feast honoring his sacred heart, a celebration that became a universal observance in the Church In 1856. This year’s celebration carries a special significance for us Americans, since our nation’s bishops, knowing that this year is our country’s 250th anniversary, voted last November to consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart. As the bishops declared, through the Sacred Heart “we have the opportunity to encourage all Catholics to honor our Lord and to ‘infuse the spirit of the Gospel into various communities and departments of life.’”
We will be able to initiate that infusion if we have a deep encounter with the Sacred Heart in our own hearts. With all due respect to St. Margaret Mary, the revelation of the Sacred Heart began with Jesus in his own ministry: “Learn from me that I am meek and humble of Heart.” As we all know, the heart is the “core of the person,” and the seat of all emotion, especially love. Jesus in referencing his humility, was hinting at his Incarnation, his heart surely human, but only because it is the heart of the true God become man, an unimaginable mystery of humility, and a heart able of love as only God loves. This was the love that drove the Father to send his Son, a heavenly project that consumed him in every event and moment of Jesus’ earthly life, all the way to the moment on the cross when he said, “It is finished,” and in death surrendered his spirit.
At that moment the centurion thrust the spear into Jesus’s side, into his heart, and blood and water flowed out. This, of course, is sacramental, blood and water representing the forgiveness of sins in Baptism and the gift of eternal life in the Eucharist. The image is Trinitarian, too. Jesus, as Son, poured out his Spirit to the Father, and all of this points to the inescapable truth that the Sacred Heart shared love, the love that God shares with himself in his persons, and a love that he shares with us in becoming man, in dying for us, and in giving us the gifts of the sacraments.
The solemnity of the Sacred Heart in the end is a mystery of Love, and its very nature means it goes beyond any other devotion. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J. once observed, the Sacred Heart takes us to the most fundamental mysteries. We have already recognized the Trinity and the Incarnation, and we can add to that our elevation into divine life by the sacraments.
All of these are the greatest mysteries of God’s love.
That love can help us overcome what is often the most difficult thing of all in the spiritual life: trusting in God. As Pope Francis explained in his encyclical Dilexit Nos in St. Margaret Mary and her “experiences” with Jesus’s Sacred Heart, “we encounter… a profoundly personal and challenging invitation to entrust our lives to the Lord.” We can live and act and believe “in the knowledge that we are loved,” and have “complete confidence in that love.” That love can empower and motivate us to do as our bishops are asking and hoping for in consecrating the nation. Since the Sacred Heart means nothing less than God sharing his love for us, we also should share that love. We have a nation and even a world at need. Reflecting on the Sacred Heart on behalf of all of the U.S. bishops, Archbishop Alexander K. Sample said it this way: “Our devotion to the Sacred Heart demands that we consider how we might foster truth, justice, and charity in American life.” The Sacred Heart, then, is set before us not only as a pious devotion, but as the driving force and inspiration of our mission. Jesus shares with us the love in his own heart, and the hope is that it will be shared with others, with our own countrymen, so that in their own hearts, they, too, might also know the love of Jesus’s own.
EWTN, https://ewtnmission.com/seasonsandfeastdays/sacredheart/
See Apostolicam actuositatem, no. 20. Quoted in Archbishop Alexander K. Sample, “Reflection on the Consecration to the Sacred Heart.” https://www.usccb.org/reflection-consecration-sacred-heart.
Mt 11:29 quoted and reflected upon by Fr. John Hardon, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/doctrinal-foundation-of-devotion-to-the-sacred-heart-13692.
Fr. William Saunders, The Sacred Heart of Jesus. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/sacred-heart-of-jesus-1148
Fr. William Saunders, The Sacred Heart of Jesus. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/sacred-heart-of-jesus-1148
Fr. John Hardon, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/doctrinal-foundation-of-devotion-to-the-sacred-heart-13692 ; Fr. William Saunders, The Sacred Heart of Jesus. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/sacred-heart-of-jesus-1148
Fr. John Hardon, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/doctrinal-foundation-of-devotion-to-the-sacred-heart-13692
Pope Francis, Dliexit Nos, No. 164.
Archbishop Alexander K. Sample, “ Reflection on the Consecration to the Sacred Heart.” https://www.usccb.org/reflection-consecration-sacred-heart.