The Center of Love
Some liturgical feast days are very familiar to us, and most certainly our feast today is one of them. How significant do you think it is for today’s Catholic people? Our first response might be that it has little or no significance to them. But we need to explore more deeply. Maybe what we think of as a decline is actually just a change in the manner of expressing devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Reflecting on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is as ancient as the crucifixion. The opening of the side of Jesus with the soldier’s lance as he hung on the cross also opened the heart of Jesus as his redemptive love poured out to all creation. (John 19:34) Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, complete in the Divine nature descended in all humility and took upon himself human flesh, and his human heart was broken in love for us. How can we ever express our gratitude and love for our Savior as we contemplate His sacred heart?
We feel powerless! Yet we know we are called to be in communion with Jesus—even in his suffering. Thus, the earliest disciples looked for ways to express their gratitude and praise. The profound mystery of Jesus and the desire of his followers to praise and thank him has taken different forms of what we call DEVOTION.
Perhaps It would be appropriate here to define what we mean by devotion and who better to help us than our Dominican brother, Thomas Aquinas. In the Summa, he defines devotion as “nothing else but the will to give oneself readily to things concerning the service of God.” (Q82,1) Devotion is a fruit of meditation on God’s Goodness, and it is aided by reflecting on objects. The goal of devotion is to bring us to God. The effect of devotion is joy. With this understanding, it follows that devotion to the Sacred Heart by early Christians has been passed down through the centuries by faithful believers longing to tell of their joy and gratitude to Jesus, our Savior.
The images and practices used in sharing this devotion to the Sacred Heart have changed over time. A type of evolution occurs as stories are told and new experiences invite new forms of devotion. We are most familiar with the devotion initiated by the 17th-century, French nun, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, that was spread by Jesuits and other followers. As the “First Friday” devotions spread throughout Europe and beyond, they became entwined in the culture.
We might say such devotion gained “popularity” and was a prominent practice for most of us. Given our time in history, images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus abounded in our homes and schools. Many of us had Sacred Heart Badges along with our brown scapulars and Miraculous Medals. We held them in respect of what they represented. For many of us, this devotion remains something we hold dear in our prayer life. Of course, there is no way I can know what devotional practice means to another person. I can know only my own experience which I treasure.
Jesus said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and gentle of heart.” (Matt 11:29) Gentleness: let this be our attitude as we encourage one another in prayer. With this gentle, open attitude let us look at how this same call to devotion to the Sacred Heart might be evolving.
Our study of Laudato Si’ opens us to a much wider appreciation of God’s Creation. When we speak of the God of the Universe, we are filled with the Mystery of the Trinity within and around us. We hear of the whole of Creation as the mystical Body of Christ. Our minds can hardly hold the vastness of time and distance.
Looking for guidance, we can find none better than the French, Jesuit priest and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. Did you know that he tells us that his understanding of the Cosmic Christ stemmed from his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? He saw the Heart of Jesus as the center of all created reality—both present reality and future dreams—the center of love.
Talk about the evolution of devotion! We are going to pause here. There is so much to absorb. But we leave with a sense of gratitude to our own Sisters who are encouraging us to keep sacred what is sacred to us but to be open to all that is waiting for us as we pray our way into a new day.
I would like to close this with a few lines of a lovely contemporary litany written by Wendy Wright:
HEART OF JESUS. . . HEAR OUR PRAYER
WOMB OF JUSTICE…HEAR OUR PRAYER
TRANSFORMING FIRE…HEAR OUR PRAYER
WOUNDED BY LOVE…HEAR OUR PRAYER
POURED OUT AS GIFT…HEAR OUR PRAYER
Click here for Wendy Wright's full litany.
– Sister Bridget Kiniry, OP
A resident of Dominican Convent, Sister Bridget is a preacher and
coordinator of the Days for Girls program there.