In the evening of life we shall be judged on love
St John of the Cross

The Gift of God to Us
Mary d'Apice, rscj

The title “Sacred Heart” has become a name for the person of Jesus Christ under the aspects of his Heart. For us in the Western World the heart has become not only a universally recognised symbol of love, but speaks also of the very core of the personality – that which makes a person who he/she really is. It is the innermost self of the person, the centre of being.

As Pedro Arrupe S.J writes: “It is impossible to find in the New Testament a word that more readily and accurately, more profoundly and with more human warmth could come close to a definition of the person of Christ than his Heart.”

When we speak of the heart of Jesus, then, we are speaking of who he really is, of all that makes him who he has become for us:

• his way of looking at things

• his thoughts, desires, the ambitions which underlay all that he did

• his preferences, likes and dislikes, his real repugnance for all that was phoney or insincere

• his feelings and emotions

• above all his love.

• all that was deepest in him, all that was most human in him, as well as all that was truly divine in him.

• his inner life which impelled him to act in the ways he did, whether in nursing a child on his lap, forgiving the sin of a paralysed man, or spending an evening fishing with his friends.

The Heart of Christ, and all that it stands for is the gift of God to us. In the words of John:  “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:16)

 It was God that Jesus loved to speak of as Abba, Father. Again at Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, we read in Luke:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow – so the child will be holy and will be called ‘Son of God’ (Luke 1:35).

Just as we cannot separate the Heart of Christ from his whole person, neither can we separate Jesus from the Father or the Spirit.

 Centred on Christ, devotion to the Sacred Heart extends to the life of the Trinity,

-     to the Father on whom Jesus’ whole life was centred:
      “I do always the things that please him.” (John 8:29)

-     to the Spirit who was his Spirit, guiding, leading him, filling him with joy and with love.

      Someone has written
“Devotion to the Sacred Heart is an invitation to dwell in God in the place where the Son is eternally turned towards the Father in that love whose fruit is the Spirit.” (Sadoux p.123).

 It is only through Jesus’ Heart of flesh that humanity can learn to hear the heart-beat of a God (idem) who, though the prophet, has told us:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jer. 31:3)

 The Heart of Jesus becomes the meeting place where we can share the divine life of the Trinity. (Sadoux p.123)

It is through Jesus that the meaning and reality of that everlasting love of which Jeremiah speaks can be understood as we watch him:

- not only touching, but embracing the leper

- holding the children in his arms,

- being gently forgiving to the woman who had sinned

- accepting affection from John

- being infinitely patient with Peter, and that must not have always been easy bringing forgiveness and healing to so many.

He breathes into us the Spirit who inspired his life.

His coming into our world brings us into an entirely new relationship with God. 

The wonder of this is caught up beautifully by John O’Shea as he relates one small person’sreaction to the news:

“She was just five, sure of the facts and recited them with slow solemnity, convinced every word was revelation.

She said they were so poor they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat
and they went a long way from home without getting lost.
The lady rode a donkey, the man walked all the way, and the baby was inside the lady.
They had to stay in a stable with an ox and an ass (hee-hee)
but the three Rich Men found them because a star lited the roof.
Shepherds came and you could pet the sheep, but not feed them.
Then the baby was borned.
And do you know who he was?
Her twenty cent eyes inflated to silver dollars,
the baby was God.
She jumped in the air, whirled around, dived into the sofa,
and buried her head under the cushion,
Which after all is the only proper response to the Good News of the Incarnation.”

And what better way could we find to give expression to the excitement and joy of hearing of God’s choice to become one with us by sharing our humanness.

In 1800 when the Society was founded, St Madeleine Sophie may not have reacted in quite the same way, but she was equally moved by the realization that the revelation of the boundless love of God for his creation was to be found in Jesus and in the symbol of his Heart.
These were the years of Sophie’s early childhood. From Joigny, she had heard reports of the terror in Paris, of the sacrileges committed and the desecration of the churches.
She, like the rest of the Christian population, longed to make reparation for what had been done by their countrymen, for the profanities that had been committed and for the lack of understanding of God’s love in the preaching of the Jansenists. And what better way to do this than through adoration of Jesus whose presence amongst them was centred in the Eucharist.

From the earliest days of the Society adoration of the Blessed Sacrament played an important role in the devotion, and the Eucharist remains for us today the way by which;
“We enter into the mystery of the open side of Jesus … and are drawn into his gift to his Father for the life of the world”

As our Constitutions tell us.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, then does not mean a series of religious practices or prayers, though these may be a way of expressing our deepest feelings. It is important to be aware of the difference between such “devotions” and the deep underlying devotion.
To be devoted to someone means in some way to make that person central in one’s life, to show affection, be loyal to and caring of that person, to be involved in a committed way with him of her.
In the religious sense, it speaks of the bond which binds us to God when we freely offer ourselves to his love and to his service.
It takes over the whole life of the one who makes this offering, involving attitudes, inner feelings, preferences, ideas and desires.

Those called by the Spirit and attracted to this particular devotion as a way of organizing into a whole their journey towards God, are those who wee in the Heart of Christ the channel through which God moves towards us in the closest possible relationship and through which he reveals the meaning of his love for us.

The Constitutions of the Society of the sacred Heart speak of the fact that “our sole purpose in living is to glorify the Heart of Jesus, to discover and make known his love.”
This is the central element of our charism, our spirit.
What is meant by “glorifying”?

Perhaps we come closest to understanding that term when we look to scripture. In the Old Testament the biblical image of glory was used as a sign of God’s presence. No-one could see God but they could behold his glory. Moses saw the glory of God, as did others, but could never see him face to face.

To glorify, then, speaks of making present, showing forth that presence.
Jesus speaks of being “glorified” n his apostles when he addresses his Father in prayer at the Last Supper. Earlier he has told them that it is through loving one another, in ministering to each other, that they show themselves to be his disciples, - that they manifest his presence to others.

To glorify the Heart of Jesus means to show forth his presence, his love, his mind, his desire to bring life to all, in the way we live, we love, we go out in service to others.
Devotion to the Heart of Christ is not a self-centred time of prayer, of warm feelings, of satisfaction.

It means
Coming to know Him through prayer, through meeting him in the Gospels and in the world around us.

It means
Accepting and returning his love, and allowing ourselves to be caught up in his love for our God, empowered to do this by his Spirit.

It means
Endeavouring to make him present in our world, our relationships, our professions, by revealing his love, his concern, to those we meet. By making present his solicitude, his justice, his mercy in our homes, our places of work and relaxation.

We might sum up in the words of Gerard Manly Hopkins which, although addressed to Our Lady, speak equally powerfully to us:
“Who this one work has to do
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory that would go
Through us and from us flow off
And no way but so.”

Mary d’Apice, RSCJ