The worship of the Sacred Heart is anchored in Tradition and Scripture. It remains more relevant than ever, as Father Martin Pradère explains, co-author of the very comprehensive guide The Message of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Why did Popes Pius XI and Pius XII affirm that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the “summary” “of all religion” and the “mystery of our redemption”? Abbot Martin Pradère: These two Popes of the 20th century have addressed this subject in encyclicals: Pius XI, in Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928) – on reparation –, and Pius XII in Haurietis aquas (1956) – on the worship of the Sacred Heart. For them, this devotion contains somehow “the rule of perfection, the one that most easily leads minds with in-depth knowledge of Christ Lord and most passionately inclines hearts to his love and most effectively imitating him. It’s about therefore of a central devotion to the Church. How is it central? We must return to the Gospel of Saint John, which, from a biblical perspective, is like the foundation of this devotion, notably through this fundamental passage of the piercing of the side of Jesus by the soldier (Jn 19:34). You can see the top of this Gospel. It symbolizes completion of Revelation. In the Latin version, the translation says that the soldier “opened” the side of Christ: as if he had opened – revealed – in a certain way the treasure of the Scriptures, the mystery of love, symbolized by the Heart of the Word. The shot of lance in fact gives access to what holy Bernard called “the secret of the heart”, the “entrails of the goodness of our God.” It’s a beginning absolute: in blood and water which spring forth, the Fathers have contemplated the birth of the Church, through the gift of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of baptism and of the Eucharist. These communicate to us the divine life, cleanse us of our sins and open us thus eternal life. So why Saint Augustine says that, “when the side of Christ was opened, these are the gates of Heaven which were opened”! Through the pierce, Jesus fulfills his promise: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink, the one who believes in me! As the Scripture says: his heart will sink rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38). This “living water” will give birth to a new humanity, the Church – his Mystical Body, represented by John and Mary in foot of the Cross – finally able to give back to God “love for love”. It is a paradox that the gesture of the greatest ingratitude that men could have done – pierce the Heart of God – became the place of the greatest mercy.
What is the link between the Eucharist and the Heart of Jesus? In Paray, all the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to Marguerite-Marie took place in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The heart of Jesus is filled with a crazy love that pushed him to give himself, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, in the act of the greatest love, that of the cross. It is this love of his Heart which is made present to us in the Eucharist.
Mother Teresa said: “When you look at him on the Cross, you see how he loved you 2000 years ago; when you look at it in the Eucharist, you see how he loves you Today.” Since it is in the Eucharist that God loves us the most, in giving us his Heart, it is also there that he most expects our love in return… It is always thirsty for our love, like on the Cross.
Jesus also complains to Marguerite-Marie of the coldness, irreverence and sacrileges committed against him in the Eucharist precisely. This mysterious link between the Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist manifests itself particularly in miracles Eucharistic, including numerous studies scientists have shown that the host was become the flesh of a heart.
Besides in the Gospel of Saint John, is this devotion rooted in Scripture? The Catechism says that “the Heart of Jesus refers to the Scriptures, which designate the Heart of Christ”, in that they do to know. Indeed, this devotion is already prefigured in the Old Testament, with the mystery of the revelation of the love of God and the evocation of God’s complaint – especially among the prophets – who does not receive from his people the love that he waits. The New Testament mentions also the Heart of Christ when Jesus reveals that he is “gentle and humble” of heart and that heart is the place of our rest. Finally, with Saint Thomas who wants to put his finger in the wound on the side of Christ, to believe in his resurrection. The pierced Heart is therefore the key to interpretation of all Revelation and of all the Scriptures.
What does Church Tradition say? This devotion developed gradually among the Fathers of the Church, then the monks of the Middle Ages, while remaining reserved for a sort of spiritual elite. With the demand for the festival in the 17th century, in Paray, and its institution, in the 19th century, for the universal Church in 1856, it will become the central devotion of the Church. It is made available to all people Christian, through practices that are quite simple .
Why is this private worship became public, with the liturgy of the Sacred Heart? Already in the 13th century, during a apparition to Saint Gertrude of Helfta, Saint John had revealed to her that “the sweet eloquence of these pulsations [of the Heart of Jesus] was kept in reserve for current times, so that their echo warms love numb that wears to God the aging world. That joins the apparitions of Paray, during from which Jesus complains of the coldness of the love of men, in particular consecrated people. Furthermore, let’s not forget that Jesus appears to Marguerite-Marie while France is in the middle of a crisis Jansenist, which produces abandonment of Jesus in the Eucharist, because of the too great indignity of men. In fact, during this period, we make ourselves God a terrible image, far from God of love. Without forgetting intellectualism and the philosophism of the French elites, who developed from the 17th century and even more in the 18th century – with the philosophers of the Enlightenment – and will lead to a abstract conception of God, by a hypertrophy of reason. Jesus’ request to worship his Heart is therefore linked to all these defections which will increase over the centuries following: it is prophetic.
What is the request for “repair” mentioned by Jesus to Marguerite-Marie? In the celebration requested by Jesus during the apparitions of Paray le-Monial, the tone is eminently restorative: it is a celebration to console his Heart for the ingratitude of his people and return his love, individually and in the name of the entire Church.
So why there is a private and public aspect of worship. Indeed, if the Mercy is God’s ability to exceed his justice, through superabundant love, she also asks for justice because an offense requests repair. There is therefore a penitential dimension, which passes through our sacrifices, consents… However, we must also not forget the compassionate dimension that Jesus desires: by showing him our love and compassion for the harm that we him have done, we also respond to his thirst of love. Replacing the vinegar of our ingratitude, lack of love, sacrileges… we offer him the good wine of the Spirit poured out in our hearts, which allows us to love him. “God thirsts for us let us thirst for him” (CCC 2560). The repair therefore involves, first of all, to receive the love of Jesus, to believe in it, to welcome it – in the Eucharist, the Word of God, our brothers, the veneration of images… –, to let oneself be loved by Jesus, who suffers from not being able to pour out his floods of love on us, who we don’t want it… Before we can return his love and console his Heart, through gratitude and reciprocity.
How is this cult current? On the one hand, more than ever, Jesus is neglected in the Blessed Sacrament… including by Catholics. On the other hand, evil is still at work in our world. But all our lack of love towards God in the Eucharist and also in our sins committed against men – which are also an offense grave done to God – demand reparation. However, before being able to ask him to repair the offenses made to the Heart of God, today’s man needs, initially time, to experience his love and mercy, before you can love him back. Paray’s message is addressed to a humanity which has turned away from the God of love, to lead her to return to him through gentleness, tenderness and the humility of his Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart therefore has nothing doloristic or outdated: it is for today!
Comments collected by Émilie Pourbaix
Source: 3839 (calameo.com)
Source: FC3839 (2).pdf