Week 1: Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Introduction

This is the first in a series of four brief articles  to stir  your interest in the 350^th anniversary of the Church’s official promotion (1674 to 2024) of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  Herein, you will find the essential content of Jesus’ request to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to relay a message about the reality and immensity of his ongoing love for each of us.  While the observance falls on June 7^th this year (dependent upon the date of Easter, and frequently is  moved to the closest Sunday, in this case June 9^th), by these articles we hope to inspire a lifetime consecration to the Sacred Heart, monthly observances (“first Fridays”), weekly prayers (Thursday night), and indeed even daily expressions of affection (via reverence of a home image of the Sacred Heart). All this for the One who has so loved us as to leave Heaven, become a human male, and suffer and die for us, that we might be spared the well-deserved but pitiable consequence of our sins: eternal separation from God.

See within the artist’s rendering, above, the image which Jesus himself manifested to St. Margaret Mary. The heart is beset by various forms of suffering: his earthly cross, and the thorns of ingratitude  and indifference which torment it, still. See how it has been opened by the Centurion’s lance but no less by our own, more recent, sins. Yet, through all it burns with the fire of a love which ardently desires to embrace us.

Jesus said to her, “My Heart is so full of love for men that It can no longer contain the flames of Its burning love. I must reveal to men the treasures of My Heart and save them from perdition.“

The attraction of love recognizing love and resonating with it is at the root of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Think of how an earthly fire enkindles a greater fire by setting another object ablaze, then joining with it, and together growing truly massive. Here, spiritual love between Jesus and us turns into a true, spiritually intense, conflagration–one capable of purifying intention and reducing self-love to ashes.

How can this be? Well, few people are so constructed as to have the willpower to love just by choosing it in the abstract like an angel would. Considerably more (but not all) people learn through intellectual means–the recognition of patterns, creation of propositions, and application of logical principles in syllogisms; but that can leave one dry, again limiting movement of the will away from self and toward God and one’s neighbor. Ah, but most people are able to learn from a demonstration of affection, particularly examples asserted in their regard, on their behalf, that touch the heart–if only they witness them or, as in the present case, are reminded of them. Such is the topic we now address: Jesus wishes to enflame our hearts by uniting them closely with his own in a mutuality of sympathy, affection, and compassion.

But the better question is, why should this be? Consider that Jesus could presently be consoled by angels as in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was strengthened by an angel prior to going to his Calvary. Certainly in Heaven there are many surrounding him, now, constantly. But their devotion would do us as little good as the disciples’ somnolescence did him, then. Rather, it is for our sake that Jesus reveals the raw compassion inherent to his passion, that we might be inflamed with love through spending time in His company.   Seek out Eucharistic adoration and spend quiet moments of prayer alone with him. Ask him to share the deepest desires of his Sacred Heart with you.

References for additional reading:
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/the-revelation-of-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus-paral-le-monial-france-13719

https://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Sacred_Heart/Sacred_Heart_001.htm

Article 1: Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Introduction
Article 2: The Twelve Promises
Article 3: Keeping Jesus Company, and Being in His Company
Article 4: His Love Is Real and Brings Us Hope