The Object of Devotion to the Sacred Heart (1)

“For is not the sum of all religion and therefore the pattern of more perfect life, contained in that most auspicious sign and in the form of piety that follows from it inasmuch as it more readily leads the minds of men to an intimate knowledge of Christ Our Lord, and more efficaciously moves their hearts to love Him more vehemently and to imitate Him more closely.”

Thus Pope Pius XI described devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Encyclical he dedicated to this subject, Miserentissimus Redemptor of May 8, 1928. A few years later, Pius XII echoed the same sentiment, writing the encyclical Haurietis Aquas in Gaudio of May 15, 1956:

“If you but knew the gift of God . . . . With these words, venerable brethren, … We admonish them all . . . for even though the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has triumphed so to speak, over the errors and neglect of men, and has penetrated entirely His Mystical Body, still there are some of Our children who, led astray by prejudices, sometimes  go so far as to consider this devotion ill-adapted, not to say detrimental, to the more pressing spiritual needs of the Church and of humanity in this present age.”

“There are some who, confusing and confounding the primary nature of this devotion with various individual forms of piety which the Church approves and encourages but does not command, regard this as a kind of additional practice which each one may take up or not according to his own inclination. There are others who reckon this same devotion burdensome and of  little or no use to men who are fighting in the army of the divine King.” 

“Again, there are those who so far from considering this devotion a strong support for the right ordering and renewal of Christian morals both in the individual's private life and in the home circle, see it rather a type of piety nourished not by the soul and mind but by the senses and consequently more suited to the use of women, since it seems to them something not quite suitable for educated men.”

“Who does not see, venerable brethren, that opinions of this kind are in entire disagreement with the teachings which Our predecessors officially proclaimed from this seat of truth when approving the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.?”

We are warned by the voice of the Sovereign Pontiffs: devotion to the Heart of Jesus is not an annex in the Christian life; it is not a devotion among others, but the heart (it is indeed the case to say it) of our religion.

On the occasion of the jubilee of the apparitions of Paray-le-Monial, two previous articles have attempted to sketch in broad strokes the history of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the culmination that these apparitions were with the life of St. Margaret Mary. Let us now try to define its object – insofar as one can define a mystery… What are we talking about when we discuss the Sacred Heart? 

The great texts of the Church tradition manifest several aspects of it. It is considered to be at the same time, the symbol of the love of the Incarnate Word, as the object of all desires, the place of rest and consolation for tired souls, the inexhaustible fountain of mercy, and the model and source of all virtues [1]. How can we account for all these facets of the same adorable reality that is the Heart of Jesus?

The Physical Heart of Jesus

Towards what do we turn our homage, when we adore the Heart of Jesus? Is it a simple metaphor to designate His love – but do we adore a metaphor? Is it a simple bodily organ – but is that not a certain idolatry? and why not another member?

During the first apparition of Paray-le-Monial, Our Lord expressly asks that we honor Him “under the figure of this Heart of flesh.” It is therefore more than a manner of speaking. The physical Heart of the Incarnate Word is indeed the object of our devotion. Is it legitimate? Can we adore a material organ, even one belonging to Christ?

St. Thomas Aquinas, who did not speak explicitly of the Sacred Heart, nevertheless gives us the principle of the answer: “To adore the flesh of Christ is nothing other than to adore the Word of God incarnate, just as to venerate the king's garment is nothing other than to venerate the king who wears it. [2]" 

It is therefore understood that the cult of the Sacred Heart passes through the material heart of Christ, but is addressed, ultimately, to the divine person. To adore the Sacred Heart is to adore the second person of the Holy Trinity through a physical organ united to Him by the mystery of the Incarnation.

But then why the heart? It is legitimate to honor a part, a member of the humanity of Christ to the extent that this part has a particular symbolism, maintains a certain relationship with one of His mysteries. We thus adore His wounds to refer to His sufferings.

Along the same lines, although without speaking of Christ, St. Paul exclaims, quoting the prophet Isaiah: "How beautiful are the feet of the apostles, the feet of those who proclaim the good news," thus praising the tireless zeal of the propagators of the Gospel.

Similarly, the bodily heart of Jesus is honored, insofar as it symbolizes something else. Now the heart is universally taken as the symbol of love. The place of the heart in love has sometimes been exaggerated, making it the organ linked to love as the brain is the organ linked to thought, which does not seem accurate.

The Church does not decide this point, and devotion to the Sacred Heart does not depend on it. The fact remains that the heart is involved in the sensitive reactions linked to love. As the eminent physiologist Claude Bernard says: “The love that makes the heart beat is… not only a poetic formula, it is also a physiological reality.” [3]

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is therefore not only a pious metaphor; nor does it have as its object an organ of flesh separate from the person who makes it beat. It addresses the real heart of Christ, the Incarnate Word, as the natural symbol of His love. It is thus in line with the “logic of the Incarnation” by which God makes us know the invisible mysteries by means of sensible realities.

The Different Loves of the Incarnate Word

The mystery of the Incarnation is that of the union, in a single divine person, of two natures: the divine nature and the human nature. Each is whole. The divinity of Christ is not diminished by His humanity, and His human nature is “in all things similar to ours except sin”; His human soul therefore has the same faculties as ours (among others, for what interests us, a will and a sensitivity).

Thus Christ possesses:

- the divine will, common to the three persons of the Trinity, source of His uncreated and eternal love;

- a human will with a human love [4], created at the same time as His human nature;

- He also possesses a human sensitivity.

Love of Charity Created

Speaking of the love of Jesus, symbolized by the Sacred Heart, can therefore be understood in several different and complementary senses, which we will distinguish without separating them in the least. The first sense, the one most often intended by the Church, the liturgy and the saints, is that of human love, love of charity residing in the human will of Christ.

Indeed, more than uncreated love, it is linked to the organ of the heart. It is this love that the litanies sing when they invoke the “Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity, sanctuary of justice and love, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, patient and very merciful,” etc.

This created love turns first towards God. Thus Jesus says in the Gospel that His sustenance is to do the will of His Father. Similarly, St. John comments on the first expulsion of the sellers from the temple by applying to Jesus the phrase of the Psalm: “zeal for your house devours me.”

It is Christ’s love for His Father that allows the work of reparation to which we can associate ourselves – a central idea in the message of Paray-le-Monial – since being united to Our Lord by grace, we can offer God His love; we can love God with the Heart of Jesus.

In the Herald of Divine Love, St. Gertrude reports this phrase of Our Lord: “Here I offer to the gaze of your soul my sacred Heart, a melodious instrument whose sweet accents always charm the infinite Trinity. Ask it to repair your faults, the weaknesses of your life; your works will then become perfect and pleasing before my eyes…”

“At any time, it can repair your negligence… My sacred Heart waits, with a devouring thirst, for you to invite It, either by your words or by a sign, that you urge It to complete, to perfect the acts of your life, something that you are incapable of achieving on your own. [5]” 

However, it must be recognized that devotion to the Sacred Heart, as it exists in fact in the Church, sees above all the love of Jesus towards men. Even if, in absolute terms, Christ’s love for His Father is the source of His love for men, and is a priority for Him, it is this latter aspect that is first presented in the Sacred Heart. All the great texts bear witness to this.

St. Anselm, speaking of the wound in the side, exclaims: “Has not this wound revealed to us the infinite treasures of His goodness, that is to say, all the charity of His Heart for us?”[6] St. Bernard also says: “If, in fact, Your side has been pierced, is it not so that the entrance to it may remain open to us?”

“Yes, Your Heart has been wounded, so that, hiding ourselves from external agitations, we may dwell in It, in You. It has been wounded again so that this visible wound may manifest to us the invisible wound of Your love. [7]”

At Paray-le-Monial, Christ said nothing else: “My Heart is so passionate with love for men, and for you in particular.”… “He showed me that the ardent desire He had to be loved by men and to remove them from the path of perdition, where Satan throws them in crowds, had made Him form this plan to manifest His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, mercy, grace, sanctification, and salvation that it contains.” (…)

“It was then that he revealed to me the inexplicable wonders of His pure [love], and to what excess He had carried it, to love men, from whom He has received only ingratitude and misunderstanding. … Here is this Heart which has loved men so much.”

Why does devotion to the Sacred Heart seem to put what is most important, namely Jesus’ love for His Father, into second place? Because its purpose is to touch men and invite them to “return love for love.” Now men are more generous when they know they are loved.

[1] Cf. The articles on “Origins of the Sacred Heart Devotion.” 

[2] Summa Theologiae, III, q. 25, a. 2, c. 

[3] Quoted by Bainvel, La Dévotion au Sacré-Cœur de Jésus,  [Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus], Beauchesne, 1930, p 174. 

[4] Without there being any contradiction between the two: the human will of Christ has always been subject to His divine will, as St. Paul says: “Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.” This phrase of the Apostle clearly shows that Jesus had a human will, without which He could not have obeyed. 

[5] St. Gertrude, The Herald of Divine Love. 

[6] Meditation 10 on the Passion of Christ. 

[7] Treatise on the Passion of the Lord, ch. III, 18.