Source: Monastery of Tarascon, France
The Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
As part of our discussions on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, today we listen to the testimony of Saint Marguerite-Marie, on the promises He made to her for us: these promises can help us grow in Faith in Jesus the Messiah who fulfills the Promise.
What does Saint Marguerite-Marie tell us? This is what she wrote to her Superior, Mother of Saumaise in 1685: ”He confirmed to me that the pleasure He takes in being loved, known and honored by creatures is so great that, if I am not mistaken, He promised me:
1- that all those who are devoted and consecrated to Him will never perish.
2-and that, as He is the source of all blessings, He will pour them out abundantly in all the places where the image of His Divine Heart will be placed and honored.
3-that He will reunite divided families and will protect and assist those who are in some need and who will address Him with confidence.
4-that He will pour out the sweet unction of His ardent Charity on all the communities that will honor Him and place themselves under His special protection: that He will turn away all the blows of Divine Justice to restore them to grace when they have fallen from it. In 1688 in another letter she wrote what is called ”the Great Promise”:
5- ”I promise you in the excessive Mercy of my Heart, that her almighty Love will grant to all those who will receive communion nine first Fridays of the month in a row, the grace of final penance, not dying in my disgrace and without receiving their sacraments, my Divine Heart making itself their safe asylum at the last moment.”
How can we understand these promises? What fruits can we draw from them? If the Church has recognized the holiness of Saint Margaret Mary, it is because she considers her message as authentically evangelical and it is in this that it is useful for us to consider its content and its resonance with the Word of God. When we hear Him tell us that God takes pleasure in being loved, known and honored by His creatures, is this not what God tells us in the book of Proverbs 8:30-31: “I was at His side as the Master of works (…) finding my delights among the children of men.” And in the Gospel of St. John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, My Father will love him and we will come to him and make a home with him.”
God takes pleasure in coming to us, in us, do we really believe it? Does it change anything in my life? Saint Margaret Mary tells us: ”If we could understand the ardent love He has for us and how good it is to love Him and be all His, we would despise everything else.”
1-Being devoted and consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, what does that mean for me? -Wouldn’t that be making the most of the talents that God has entrusted to me? Let us listen to what Jesus tells us in the Gospel about the parable of the talents? (St. Matthew 25:20-21): ”Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord.” -Wouldn’t that simply be welcoming the life of Jesus in abundance? In the Gospel according to St. John 10,27-28, He tells us: ”My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me; I give them eternal life; they will never perish and no one will snatch them from my hand. ‘Saint Margaret Mary encourages us in this sense: ”Be strongly attached to God and let him do it. He will not lose you: your soul is dear to him. He loves you and will not let you perish.”
2-How does the Heart of Jesus spread his blessings on us through his various images, icons, statues? It is therefore around a very simple image that the Heart of Christ wants to awaken hearts to his love. We are far from a new spiritual fetishism. The challenge is to give Jesus a place of honor in our home. We know that the Lord knocks at our door and that, if we open it, he enters our home to make his dwelling there (Cf. Rev 3:20). Through this statue or image introduced into our home, we say to him again: “Come, Lord Jesus, You are the Master in our home!” We place ourselves under his gaze. We submit our choices to him. Close to him, we learn to forgive each other, to seek unity… And behind the simple gesture of carrying this image on our heart, we show him our desire that his Heart reigns over ours. Saint Margaret Mary clarifies Jesus’ intention through these images: He wants this image to be “exposed in public in order to touch the sensitive hearts of men through this object. (…)to remove them from the empire of Satan (…) to place us under the sweet freedom of the empire of his Love.”
3- The promise of reuniting divided families arouses our Faith in the action of God in the midst of difficulties that can make us doubt;
She exhorts us to patience Here is what she wrote on August 12, 1689: “We must continue the work of God without giving up or tiring, whatever obstacles and contradictions we may encounter, because he is strong and powerful enough to overcome them and confound his enemies. But this Divine Heart is only gentleness, humility and patience; that is why we must wait; he will know how to do each thing well in its time.” – It also encourages us to trust: ”You will find in him the remedy for your ills, the strength in your weaknesses and your refuge in your needs.”
4-The sweet anointing of his ardent Charity on all the communities that will honor him and put themselves under his special protection, are these not the fruits of the Spirit that St. Paul details in his letter to the Galatians (5,22-26): ”The fruit of the Spirit is Charity, joy, peace, longanimity, kindness, confidence in others, gentleness, self-control: against such things, there is no law. Since the Spirit is our life, may the Spirit also make us act. Let us not seek vain glory, by provoking one another, by envying one another.”
To a Community Superior, Saint Margaret Mary writes: ”This amiable Heart wants me to tell you that your community has so much gained her friendship, by rendering her her first duties, that she has made herself an object of her complaisance; and he no longer wants me, praying for her, to call her anything other than the beloved community of his Heart, which takes so much pleasure in the honor he receives from it that it makes him forget all the bitterness that comes to him from elsewhere.”
5-The great promise linked to the communion of the nine first Fridays of the month requires some clarification so as not to be mistaken, or to delude oneself: In reality, this promise only repeats the words of Jesus in the Gospel: ”He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” The great promise, like the others made in Paray, are the result of a private revelation and are therefore not an object of Faith. It is certainly not a question of making the ‘nine first Fridays’ a superstitious and interested practice; but it is also essential to know how to consider divine generosity and to help souls to benefit from it. At every Eucharist, Christ tells us: “Take and eat, this is my Body given up for you!” Which means that it is Christ’s deepest wish to be eaten by us in order to dwell in us. Eucharistic communion is our response to Christ’s desire to dwell in us. Are we aware of this?