Devotion to the Sacred Heart
By Deacon Justin Kisewski
 

The beatification of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the saint who witnessed Jesus' Sacred Heart, was announced in a chapel that is now the College's library at the Casa Santa Maria. Servant of God Frank Parater, a seminarian who died while studying at the North American College once said ''Remember, the Sacred Heart never fails those who love Him.'' Pope Pius XII described the Sacred Heart as ''that particular image which surpasses all the rest in efficacy and meaning'' (Haurietis Aqua, 103).

This year, at the North American College, there has been a renewed focus on raising awareness of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Conferences and retreats have focused on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We remember the Sacred Heart most of all on First Fridays when we pray for all of our benefactors during the Litany of the Sacred Heart. The importance of the Sacred Heart in the life of the North American College is undeniable, but the devotion has a universal appeal and importance. What is the devotion to the Sacred Heart? The devotion to the Sacred Heart is, at its root, the ''worship of the love with which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to each other'' (107). Pius XII mentions three loves in that ''worship of love'' that are represented by the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The first love is the Divine Love, God himself, for God is love. But this mysterious, invisible love becomes visible in Jesus Christ. This love is shown through a weak and vulnerable presence, the Word become flesh and dwelling among us. This is the Word, which speaks Love, through whom all things were made - the universe and everything in it - and through whom it keeps going. This love is aware of me constantly, loves me continually, and will do so for ever. This heart expresses the Divine Love for us all.

The second love that the Sacred Heart of Jesus symbolizes is the ''burning love which, infused into his soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused'' (56). Jesus had that perfect human knowledge in which he knew on earth what the saints know in heaven. The more we know, the more we can love. Jesus had perfect human love that flowed from his perfect human knowledge. Christ the man was able to see and love us perfectly during the course of his life and at its end. In other words, because of his knowledge, Christ could love us to the point of death on the cross. This heart expresses perfect charity for us all.

The third love is a "sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human being" (57). In addition to the virtue of charity that Jesus had, he also had the emotion of love - a passionate love. His heart beat for his mother and for us, stopped beating for his mother and for us, and beats now, at this very moment, for his mother and for us. This heart expresses passionate love for us all.

We have missed one of the most striking aspects of the Sacred Heart - that it has been pierced by sins - yours and mine. We must remember this in ''the exercise of our own love''. About this I asked a student priest, Father Mark Lenneman (Diocese of Helena), here at the college what he thought was important about the Sacred Heart:

"The Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than just a model of priestly love. The priest must allow himself to be united completely and totally to the Sacred Heart. Union of hearts is the final goal. The priest must learn to love with the same love that is revealed by the Pierced Heart. His heart must learn to beat according to the same rhythm as Christ's. It reveals the cost of love. The Sacred Heart is a Pierced Heart. It is a Heart that has loved to the extreme, to the point where nothing more can be given. Contemplating the Sacred and Pierced Heart of Christ allows one to see that only a love that suffers can bear true and lasting life. Christ's Heart, opened more by love than by the soldier's spear, gives witness to this truth. Life is communicated to the world through the wound of His Heart."

His Heart was a Heart that suffered, that died, that gave itself up for all. This is the image of Divine Love, of perfect human charity and passionate love. This is the Heart on which all priests and seminarians are to model their own hearts.


Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy on us!