Toña Monzón rscj  | Excerpts from "Devotion to the Sacred Heart: Notes from a Lecture" The title "Sacred Heart" has become a name for the person of Jesus Christ under the aspects of his Heart. For us in the western world the heart has become not only a universally recognized symbol of love, but speaks also of the very core of personality - that which makes a person, the centre of being
Toña Monzón rscj  | The title "Sacred Heart" has become a name for the person of Jesus Christ under the aspects of his Heart. For us in the western world the heart has become not only a universally recognized symbol of love, but speaks also of the very core of personality - that which makes a person, the centre of being.
When we speak of the Heart of Jesus we are speaking of who he really is, of all that makes him who he has become for us: - his way of looking at things
- his thoughts, desires, the ambitions which underlay all that he did
- his preferences, likes and dislikes, his real repugnance
for all that was phoney or insincere - his feelings and emotions
- above all his love
- all that was deepest in him
- all that was most human in him
as well as
- all that was truly divine in him
- his inner life which impelled him to act bin the ways he did, whether nursing a child on his lap, for giving the sin of a paralysed man, or spending an evening fishing with his friends.
The Heart of Christ, and all that it stands for is the gift of God to us, In the words of John: "God so loved the world that he gave his only son that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." (John 3:16)
It was God that Jesus loved to speak of as Abba, Father. Again at Gabriel's appearance to Mary we read in Luke:
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you withy its shadow- so the child will be holy and will be called 'Son of God'". (Luke 1"35)
Just as we cannot separate the Heart of Christ from his whole person, neither can we separate Jesus from the Father or the Spirit.
Centered on Christ, devotion to the Sacred Heart extends to the life of the Trinity,
- to the Father on whom Jesus' whole life was centered: "I do always the things that please him."( John 8:29)
- to the Spirit who was his Spirit, guiding, leading him, filling him with joy and with love.
It though Jesus' heart of flesh that humanity can learn the heart-beat of a God who, through the prophet, has told us:"I have loved you with an everlasting love." (Jeremiah 31:3) It is through Jesus that the meaning and reality of that everlasting love of which Jeremiah speaks can be understood as we watch him
- not only touching, but embracing the leper
- holding the children in his arms
- being gently forgiving to the woman who had sinned
- accepting affection from John
- being infinitely patient with Peter, and that must not have always been easy
- bringing forgiveness and healing to so many.
From him we learn that God is a loving, compassionate, just, merciful and forgiving God.
The Heart of Jesus mirrors for us the Heart of our God.
He is our way to God.
He breathes into us the Spirit who inspired His life.
His coming into our world brings us into an entirely new relationship with God.
Excerpts from "Devotion to the Sacred Heart: Notes from a Lecture"
Mary d'Apice rscj
Province of Australia-New Zealand
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