The Church dedicates the month of June to the Sacred Heart of the Lord. Today, the Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi, is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is very old; the Fathers of the Church already spoke of it. Everything springs from that “meek and humble” Heart that was pierced for us by the spear of the Roman soldier, on the Cross of Calvary. From him came blood and water, symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist, and of the Church, Spouse of Christ, who is born from the open side of the new Adam, as Eve was born from the open side of the first.
About this feast, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Thus, looking at the ‘side pierced by the spear’ from which shines forth God’s boundless desire for our salvation cannot be considered a transitory form of worship or devotion: the adoration of God’s love, whose historical and devotional expression is found in the symbol of the ‘pierced heart,’ remains indispensable for a living relationship with God.”
The Lord spoke of His heart to St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Italian and Doctor of the Church.
Catherine asked Jesus: “Sweet Lamb without blemish, You were dead when Your chest was opened. Why then did You allow Your Heart to be wounded and opened with such violence?”
Jesus replied: “I had several reasons, but I will tell you the main one – I showed you this in my open side, where you discover the secret of my heart: namely, that I love you much more than what I could show you with the finite torments I received. I have shown you that my love is infinite.”
A few centuries later, on June 16, 1675, Jesus appeared to St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647- 1690) and showed her His Heart surrounded by flames of love, crowned by thorns, with an open wound from which blood flowed and, a cross at the top. St Margaret heard the Lord say: “Behold the heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself in testimony of its love.”
In 1856, Pope Pius IX instituted the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, proposing, following the recommendation of the saints, the consecration of the world to the Heart of Jesus.
In Portugal, the “Basilica da Estrela,” also known as the “Basilica of the Heart of Jesus,” was the first church in the world to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Two Inseparable Hearts – On the Saturday following the Friday of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (tomorrow). Jesus and Mary never parted; the two hearts are intertwined and inseparable.
Our Lady, having been part of the first community of the Early Church, was also a Eucharistic soul – “What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: ‘This is my body which is given for you’ (Lk, 22:19)… Receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross,” exclaimed St John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia.
In contemplating the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament – “the center of all Christian life” – one contemplates the heart of the Lord: source of salvation and redemptive love; unimaginable and unattainable to man’s heart.
António dos Santos
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