This week we give special honor to Jesus' Sacred Heart. Devotion to His Sacred Heart is not about focusing on some particular aspect of Christ. The Sacred Heart is central to Him, it is the core of His being.
Out of God's great love, the Heart we adore has been pierced, opened up for us.
"In the pierced heart of the Crucified, God's own heart is opened up; here we see who God is and what He is like," Cardinal Ratzinger said. "Heaven is no longer locked up. God has stepped out of His hiddenness. That is why St. John sums up both the meaning of the Cross and the nature of the new worship of God in the mysterious promise made through the prophet Zechariah. (cf. 12:10) 'They shall look on him whom they have pierced.' (Jn 19.37)."
"The call to be an adorer and an apostle of the Sacred Heart is addressed to every Christian," wrote Father Mark D. Kirby. "The apostle is, in essence, the bearer of a word, one sent forth and entrusted with a message. The message that the apostle carries into the world is the one he has learned by looking long with the eyes of adoration at the pierced Heart of the Crucified."
Our Lord did more than teach us how to pray. He became our prayer.
"It is through the Sacred Heart that the Blood of Christ speaks 'more graciously than the blood of Abel' (Heb 12:24)," Father Kirby wrote.
The author went on:
"At the core of devotion to the Sacred Heart is a passing-over into the prayer of Christ to the Father, a long apprenticeship to silence by which we begin to let the Heart of Christ speak in us and for us to the Father.
"The mystics of the Sacred Heart, in particular St. Gertrude and St. Mechthilde, speak of offering the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Father. This means allowing the Sacred Heart to speak for us, to pray in us, to pray through us, taking comfort in what Scripture says, 'that we have not a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.' (Heb 4:15).
"This suggests a simple way of praying, one accessible to all: 'Lord Jesus, I come to be silent in Your presence, trusting that Your Heart will speak for me, knowing that all I could ever want to say, that all I would ever need to say, is spoken eternally to the Father by Your Sacred Heart.'
"In this way, everything that prayer can or should express — adoration, praise, thanksgiving, supplication and reparation — finds its most perfect expression. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, thus understood, is a manifestation in the Church of the Holy Spirit, 'helping us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.' (Rom 8:26). The Sacred Heart is, in the life of the Church, the organ by which 'the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.' (Rom 8:27)."
What a great gift we have in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, torn open for us on the cross and always interceding for us!
"The Sacred Heart is the Heart of God laid bare for man. . . . It is a human Heart lifted high on the Cross. . . . It is the Heart of the Church open to all who seek, to all who thirst, to every lost sheep waiting to be found and carried home. . . The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the full and irrevocable message of the Father to us. It is everything we ever could or should need to say to the Father. It is all we have to say to one another and to the world."
- Father Mark D. Kirby
Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.
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