Given by Fr Kern at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Dec 27 2023
We are preparing to experience a historic celebration which will mark the opening of the 350 years jubilee; we have the intuition that this sanctuary symbolically enters a new stage of its history, a stage already prepared for through many years.
This devotion to the Sacred Heart spread very quickly after the events of Paray with a fertility completely unparalleled in the history of the Church at least in the Latin Church
The whole world knows the Sacred Heart but it has sometimes also become an obstacle to its understanding
This wide diffusion was not free from ambiguity of misinterpretation of simplification in short there was a price to pay and we must perhaps look there in part for the reason for the disaffection of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the second part of the 20th century in the West at least. it is a matter for us of identifying and understanding the reluctance to respond.
ART
Devotion to the Sacred Heart benefited from the reproductions of the infinity of statues which enjoyed resounding success in the 19th century but it ends up looking very dusty and bloody when the sensitivities evolved in the 20th century . Beautiful works of art touch hearts and that is why an artistic project was launched last September by the sanctuary.
The jubilee intends to be a magnificent opportunity to renew the image of the Sacred Heart and its representation in art ,either painting, sculpture but also this call for projects concerns the creation of musical compositions intended for the liturgy . A photo competition is also organized so that everyone can participate in renewing our view of the emblematic sites of the sanctuary .
REPARATION
Unilateral focus on reparation reduced itself to penitential dimension or even of victimhood making the Sacred Heart a devotion a little morbid.
Obviously reparation is part of the spirituality of Paray but it is not primary and it cannot be reduced to its penitential dimension.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart in history has not been unscathed by politics reducing the Sacred Heart to an emblem or a symbol brandished like a standard in the service of certain political causes, French or Spanish.
Certainly to be authentic our devotion to the heart of Jesus must radiate throughout the world in order to establish around us the reign of Christ or to use the expression of the Holy Pope John Paul build the civilization of love but without falling into defense of a political cause as was too often the case and sometimes still is today,.
12 PROMISES
The didactic presentation of the message of the apparitions in 12 promises in the 19th century is not formally false obviously but it is marked by its time. It was certainly very effective but it ended up inducing a very impoverished spiritual dynamic. Iif I do what Jesus asks of me then I will get what I ask for promises a drift towards a mercantile relationship and this was obviously not the aim of this formatting in 12 promises but we are still very far from one who lets himself be transformed by the burning love that the Lord has for us and which calls for a response of radical love .It is precisely this experience of a radical love this living and transforming experience that the pilgrims who come today here in Paray that we have to highlight.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart was not born in Paray but historically it is from the apparitions in Sainte Marguerite Marie that she became incredibly popular and widespread throughout the Church in this sense Paray le Monial is truly a source of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
ANNOUNCEMENT-VISITATION SISTERS
Today I announce to you first announcement that the sisters of the Visitation have made the space of their current store available and their parlor to open a space of mercy in the weeks to come which will therefore open on the parvet with a direct access to the chapel of the apparitions that pilgrims can confess there of course that we increase the capacity to confess but also to be listened to accompanied by benefiting from the prayer o brothers of prayer also for the sick to ask for the healing. thank you to the VISITATION sisters for their constant concern that pilgrims are well received at their home and for this generous gift they make after offering the space of the current chapel.
We pray that the Lord grants many vocations.
REPARATION Part 2
Theme of reparation- it is a question of showing that the events of 350 years ago have something to say today to the church in France and even to the society. This question is in the news – also in the painful news of the church in what we call the abuse crisis revelation of abuse l
The words of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary as well as their heritage in history can shed precious light on one of the challenges of this jubilee- how Jesus’ request to repair the indignities done to his heart and particularly by consecrated people can open paths for the necessary reparation owed to the victims of abuse in the church and particularly by consecrated people.
This obvious fact imposes itself on us: offenses committed against God are irreparable, the offenses committed against the victims are irreparable yet it appears Christ asks for reparation himself. He alone opens and offers a path to repair and during this conference we will confront the different questions that this poses. Can we compare the indignities that Jesus expresses: ingratitude irreverence, sacrilege, coldness, and contempt with the crimes committed on the victims of abuse. Can we move on from Jesus victim to the victims themselves. How to escape too rapid a negative spiritualization of justice to perhaps discover a reparation that assumes justice and also responds to a deep thirst of the heart.
How to overcome the suspicion of a morbid perversion of reparation to find there the expression of greater freedom. Does it make sense to speak of love of reparation of love where the dignity of man has been so violently flouted, so far from what love can be? Spiritual reparation-can it allow us to pronounce a name on the unspeakable? Listening to the victims offers a new ear to the complaint of Christ, this listening to the victims.
How does it participate in reforming the life and practices of the church I now thank Father Louis Dupont Chapelin who is responsible for the organization of this conference. I refer you to the sanctuary website where you will find all the additional information.
Communion in Sacred Heart
Deepening the communion that unites the various realities and ecclesial bodies attached to the Sacred Heart, Pope Francis recalls that the Holy Spirit is the one who creates unity and a particular grace of fraternity was given by the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Marguerite Marie and Saint-Claude who then received each other as brothers and sisters.
To use the expression of Pope Francis, communion is not spherical, a sphere where all points are equidistant from the center but it is polyhedral. the polyhedral the name is a little complicated it is a species of complex geometric figure composed of multiple facets integrating a part of diversity between them. Our stories, our spiritual sensitivities are not the same, we are not all attached to the different aspects of the wealth of the heart of Jesus. Our way of speaking about it is not the same for everyone and the experience we carry is varied. We experience here receiving us as brothers and sisters is certainly a great challenge but the Lord gives it to us and we can only strengthen our fidelity to the Lord and thus enrich the pastoral proposal to welcome pilgrims this requires on our part humility; humility of the gifts that the Lord has given to each of us and also the humility to recognize the gifts that he did not give to us but that he gave to others the humility of needing others and the humility to take the place that the Lord asks of us. No one can claim the exclusivity of this devotion; no one can lay hands on the heart of Jesus and making it our own. We are together at service of a grace which surpasses each of us according to the mission received from the church. To put it simply we have been experiencing here for several years a synodality which is demanding but deeply joyful healthy and fertile.
Appeal to Religious Congregations and Invitation
I would now like to make a second appeal this time to religious congregations linked to the Sacred Heart :
come rediscover your spiritual roots come and drink from the source of the heart of Jesus, that’s why the sanctuary organizes an international meeting of major superiors of religious congregations and institutes linked to the Sacred Heart on the 14th and 15th October 2024
God’s surprises
5th issue of this jubilee receiving what God will give
We know what we have prepared and we believe that the Lord asked us to prepare, we worked a lot for this but what we do not know is what God has actually prepared for us as the book of the Proverbs says of proverbs chapter 16 “in his heart the man proposes by his word God disposes”. Man in his heart makes plans for the road -the Lord directs.
Now let us be led by the Lord. What are the surprises that the Lord will prepare- what are the calls that he will make to us we do not know.