By Leon Bent –
Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as we know it, began about the year 1672. On repeated occasions, Jesus appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun, in France. During these apparitions, He explained to her the devotion to His Sacred Heart, as He wanted people to practice it. He asked to be honoured in the symbol of His Heart of flesh; he asked for acts of reparation, for frequent Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the keeping of the Holy Hour.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart is one of the most widely practised and well-known Roman Catholic devotions, taking Jesus Christ′s physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity. The Feast is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church; Western Rite Orthodoxy; Anglican Communion; Lutheran Church. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is celebrated throughout the world on the Friday following the Feast of Corpus Christi.
When the Catholic Church approved the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she did not base her action only on the visions of Saint Margaret Mary. The Church approved the devotion on its own merits. There is only one Person in Jesus, and that Person was at the same time God and Man. His Heart, too, is Divine – it is the Heart of God.
Karl Rahner on Devotion to the Sacred Heart
There are two things that must always be found together in the devotion to the Sacred Heart: Christ’s Heart of flesh and Christ’s love for us. True devotion to the Sacred Heart means devotion to his Divine Heart, insofar as His Heart represents and recalls His love for us.
Karl Rahner had a deep devotion to the mystery of the pierced heart of Christ and he thought that this was a church devotion that would endure through the ages. He believed that it communicated the core, the very heart, of the Christian message of God’s infinite love poured out in Christ. At the conclusion of his essay, Rahner wrote these words:
“We look at the heart of the Lord and the question that is decisive for eternity fills our innermost being, the deepest recesses of heart and life: Do you love me? Do you love me in such a way that this love generates a blessed eternity, that it truly, powerfully and invincibly generates my everlasting life? This question is not answered because the answer would no longer be a secret; we could give it to ourselves. The question enters the mystery that has come near to us in the heart of the Lord. But when it enters this heart, because it is asked with faith, hope and love, that question is not answered but overpowered by the mystery that is love, by the unquestionable reality of the mystery of God…. “
(“Devotion to the Sacred Heart Today”, Theological Investigations, Volume 23, 127-128).
What does Sacred Heart of Jesus Mean?
Devotion to the wounded heart of Jesus has its origins in the eleventh century, when pious Christians meditated on the Five Wounds of Christ. There grew up among the faithful, prayers to the Sacred Heart, prayers to the Shoulder Wound of Christ—private devotions which helped Christians focus on the passion and death of Christ, and thus grow in love for our Saviour, who had suffered and died for us. Like all other true devotions in the Catholic Church, devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on divine revealed truth.
It was not until 1670, however, that a French priest, Fr. Jean Eudes, celebrated the first Feast of the Sacred Heart. Around the same time, a pious sister by the name of Margaret Mary Alacoque began to report visions of Jesus. He appeared to her frequently, and in December 1673, he permitted Margaret Mary—as he had once allowed St. Gertrude—to rest her head upon his Heart. As she experienced the comfort of his presence, Jesus told her of his great love and explained that he had chosen her to make his love and his goodness known to all.
Why and When is the Feast Celebrated?
The following year, in June or July of 1674, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus wanted to be honoured under the figure of His Heart of flesh. He asked the faithful to receive Him in the Eucharist frequently, especially on the First Friday of the month, and to observe a Holy Hour of devotion to Him.
And then in 1675, during the octave of Corpus Christi, Margaret Mary received the vision which came to be known as the “great apparition.” Jesus asked that the modern Feast of the Sacred Heart be celebrated each year on the Friday following Corpus Christi, in reparation for the ingratitude of men for the sacrifice which Christ had made for them.
The Feast became Popular after St. Margaret’s Death
The devotion became popular after St. Margaret Mary’s death in 1690. However, because the Church is always careful in approving a private apparition or devotion, the feast was not established as an official feast for all of France until 1765.
On May 8, 1873, the devotion to the Sacred Heart was formally approved by Pope Pius IX; and 26 years later – on July 21, 1899 – Pope Leo XIII urgently recommended that all bishops throughout the world observe the feast in their dioceses. Pope Leo approved indulgences for the devotion.
Fr. James Kubicki, the National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer, centres the devotion to the Sacred Heart around the source and summit of the Christian life: the Eucharist. It takes Jesus Christ′s physical heart, burning, flaming bloodied, as the representation of his divine love for humanity.
The Apostleship of Prayer
The Apostleship of Prayer is a worldwide association of Catholics and other Christians who strive to make their ordinary, everyday lives apostolically effective. Through the Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope gives his monthly prayer intentions to the entire Church. For this reason, the Apostleship came to be known as “the Pope’s own prayer group.”
Millions of devoted friends of our Lord have been united into one great league of prayer for the interests of the Sacred Heart, and have pledged themselves to make this morning offering each day. This league is known as the Apostleship of Prayer. The following is perhaps the shortest and most common form used:
“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you the prayers, works and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of your divine Heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass.”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist
The Sacred Heart signifies Christ’s love in three ways: God is love, God loves you and I, and God loves with human feeling. It is no exaggeration to say that the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the same Infinite Love who is God, and who out of love for us, became man and is here on earth. When we receive Him, that same God is within us. Love wants us to be intimate. Love wants us to be near. Love wants us to be close to the one whom it loves. The Holy Eucharist is divine genius! (Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., The Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist).
Is it impossible to identify the Holy Eucharist too closely with Jesus Christ? We should remember He is in the Holy Eucharist not merely with His substance. Fr. John Hardon insists he has corrected many of his students over the years who tell me, “Transubstantiation means that the substance of bread and wine become the substance of Jesus Christ.” I reply, “No, transubstantiation means the substance of bread and wine are no longer there. The substance of bread and wine is replaced not only by the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood. What replaces the substance of bread and wine is Jesus Christ!” Everything that makes Christ, Christ replaces what had been the substance of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine become the whole Christ (Ibid.).
The Feasts of Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, and the Eucharist, have “Transubstantiation”, at their very core! Ah! Thrice-Blessed Divine Mystery! Remember, every “mystery” is cocooned in Silence on Fire!
Christ in the Holy Eucharist is here with His human heart. Is it a living heart? Yes! That is why the revelations our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary about promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart were all made from the Holy Eucharist (Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., The Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist).
“Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you”!
– St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.