The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Liturgical Year B)

June is, for Catholics, the month highlighting our devotion to the Sacred Heart. Last Friday and Saturday, following our recent Celebration of Our Lord’s loving Gift of Holy Communion (i.e. Corpus Christi), we had two more celebrations of Love, sorely needed to highlight the true meaning of Love in an age when what may be termed ‘love’ can be directly opposed to the Will of our Creator.
 
Friday was the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Seat and Symbol of His Burning Love for us. This Love moved Him to Die for us, in agony, on the Cross on Good Friday and had also moved Him, at the Last Supper, to institute the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Through Holy Orders and Father’s words and gestures, that once-for-all Sacrifice will be made present and offered in our churches until the end of time. Christ, of course, does not suffer any more; He just wishes us to join ourselves, in our own particular time and place, to His Sacrifice, and longs to give Himself to each of us in Communion. On Fridays, Father may offer a Votive (optional) Mass of the Sacred Heart.

The Heart of Mary as depicted by the Austrian artist Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1852). This painting hangs in the side-chapel of St. Antony in the Peterskierche, Vienna

Saturday, traditionally a day on which we honour Our Blessed Mother, marking her wait, on Holy Saturday, for her Son to rise from the dead, was the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, again a Heart moved by Love, that Love which caused her to give herself to God, completely and unconditionally (‘…I am the handmaid of the Lord…’) as an instrument in His Plan to save the Human Race from Original Sin and to set us back on the way to Heaven.
 
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is linked to Saint John Eudes, who also propagated devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, although we are probably more familiar with Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque’s mission to promote this Devotion. She was a French Nun of the Visitation Order who, round about 1673, was privileged to be shown by Jesus His Sacred Heart, as He lamented that although He showers unlimited Love on Mankind, so many of us simply show ingratitude in return.

Among the revelations Jesus made was what became known as the Great Promise, namely that those, who on the First Friday of nine months in a row, would receive Communion, would be granted all the Graces they needed to finally repent of their sins, and receive the Sacraments, bringing them safely to Heaven. Of course, as we must recognise, this promise does not guarantee that one will get to Heaven, come what may, any more than having a knowledge of road safety will, if it is not practised, keep us from injury or death. Rather it promises that all the spiritual assistance we need to overcome sin and move closer to God are ours for the asking. We are, of course, expected to make our best efforts to use these sources of help! Jesus asked for the establishment of this Feast, to make up for Man’s ingratitude.
 
It is significant that these visions occurred when they did because, at the time, a heresy, known as Jansenism, presented God not as Loving, Merciful and Forgiving but, rather, negatively as someone to be feared. Free Will, given to each and every one of us, was replaced by predestination to Heaven or to Hell, something totally at variance with the Church’s Teachings which make it very clear that, far from wishing to exclude us from Heaven, God will not cease to call us to Him until our last conscious moment when we are capable of willing to love Him and go to Heaven. Only our knowing and deliberate choice of evil can separate us from our Loving God. We cannot lose the opportunity to enter Heaven by accident!
 
In an age when the meaning of the word ‘love’ has been so distorted and debased, this Devotion is another priceless asset to us in our journey to Heaven.