“Seek in the Spirit your fullness”
(Eph 5,18)
That God has loved us with a human heart, this is
not a secondary or accessory truth, it is the center and
the synthesis of all Christian revelation. His tenderness
infinite, the impetuous rivers of His mercy were
spread over all of humanity when the Heart of Jesus had
been pierced on the Cross. The worship and theology of the heart
of Jesus thus express the very mystery of our Faith, the
mystery of God-Love, the mystery of his Glory.
To be a Christian is to live to the rhythm of a heart to Heart,
it is to be taken whole, by the gift of the Spirit, in the
dynamic of this Love of God who loved us first
and who expects in return a response of love, the free offering
and most generous of all our life.
May this booklet help those who will open it to enter
further in the fullness of Christ, the living source of salvation,
for themselves, for the Church, for the world.
I willingly grant the Nihil obstat and give the imprimatur
for the edition of this booklet.
In Laval, December 8, 2014
On the feast of the Immaculate Conception
Thierry SCHERRER
Bishop of Laval
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INTRODUCTION
The pierced Heart of Christ on the Cross, from which sprang
the Water and the Blood (Jn 19,34), is the supreme manifestation of
the love that God gives us, the source of salvation: “when
Christ’s side was opened, the gates of heaven
were opened, “says St. Augustine1. In the East as in
West, the Fathers of the Church see in Water and Blood,
come out of the side of Christ, the grace of Baptism (Water) and the
sacrament of the Eucharist (the Blood). They contemplate in
this event the birth of the Church through the gift of
sacraments (1 Jn 5,6-8, CCC 766). Thus the promise is fulfilled
of Jesus to spread the rivers of living water of the Spirit
from the source of his Heart (Jn 7,37-39). By the pierced side of
Jesus is communicated the Mercy and the Love of the Father
(1 Jn 4,8.16).
“It is in his Passover that Christ opened to all
men the sources of Baptism. […] The blood
and the Water that flowed from the pierced side of Jesus
crucified (Jn 19,34) are signs of Baptism and
the Eucharist, sacraments of new life (1 Jn
5,6-8): therefore, it is possible “to be born of water and
of the Spirit “to enter the Kingdom of God
(Jn 3,5) “(CCC 1225).
Looking towards the open side of the Lord on the Cross
constitutes the foundation of the cult of the Sacred Heart. However,
devotion to the Sacred Heart also invites us to contemplate
the Heart of Jesus in all the acts of his life: “Put yourself in
1. Quotation attributed to St. Augustine (Treatise on the Gospel of St. John,
CXX, and Sermon 311).
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my school, for I am gentle and humble of heart “(Mt 11,29).
“Go to the school of the Heart of Jesus, following Saint
Jean1 and so many saints, is to discover the source
happiness. So it’s not a sorry cult! ” It’s good.
What did Pius XII mean when he began his great
Encyclical on the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the quote
from Isaiah: “You will draw water with joy from the sources of
hello “(Is 12,3) .How to explain this joy? That’s because the only happiness for man is to love and be loved “.
By the grace of the Holy Spirit, let’s worship and try so
to imitate that Heart that has surrendered for us, and reflects Love
of the Father (“Who saw Me saw the Father” (Jn 14,9)):
“May Christ dwell in your hearts by faith;
be rooted in charity and founded on it,
so you will receive the strength to understand, with
all the saints, what is the width, the length, the
height and depth, you will know the love
Christ who surpasses all knowledge. So
will you be filled with the fullness of God “
(Eph 3: 17-19)