“How much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”

          We’ve been talking a lot lately about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Just over a week ago, we joined Catholics around the United States in consecrating ourselves and our country to the Sacred Heart. But what really is devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? And what do we do now that we’ve consecrated ourselves to the Sacred Heart?

          Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a recognition of our Lord’s sacred humanity. It is a recognition of the Incarnation, that the second Person of the Trinity took on a real human nature that became permanently united to His divine nature in the hypostatic union – the union in one person of humanity and divinity. It is a recognition that He shares in our humanity, and that our humanity has been redeemed by His death and resurrection – that His Heart gave Himself for and to us in an overwhelming gift of love and mercy.

          Devotion to the Sacred Heart begins in the Gospels. At the Last Supper, we see the beloved Apostle, John, resting his head on Jesus’s heart, precisely as our Lord shares the bitter news of His coming betrayal. At that moment, John is there to console the Lord’s heart with his love and friendship.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart began to be widely practiced in the Church after our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French cloistered nun, beginning on St. John’s feast day in 1673. Manifesting His heart to her while in Eucharistic Adoration, He said, “Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.”

     In later apparitions, Christ asked for the establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after the octave day of Corpus Christi, showing the connection between the Eucharist and His Sacred Heart, as we saw two weeks ago on Corpus Christi. This was eventually carried out by the popes, and the whole month of June is now dedicated to the Sacred Heart. He also asked her to make known the First Friday devotion.

          The First Fridays are the twelfth of the great promises made by our Lord to St. Margaret Mary for all who practice devotion to His Sacred Heart. For those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month for the intention of consoling His Sacred Heart and making reparation for the outrages and indifferences committed against Him (especially in the Eucharist) for nine consecutive first Fridays, the Lord promised the grace of final perseverance – that we would persist in a state of grace until our dying breath – the most important gift of all, since this is what we need to go to Heaven – to die in a state of grace.

          This consolation of our Lord’s Sacred Heart is something we do whenever we come to Eucharistic Adoration or visit Him present in the Tabernacle. When you go through a difficult time and experience the consoling presence of a friend, you often don’t remember what your friend said in that moment. You just remember that he or she was there for you when it counted. Our presence before the Lord in the Eucharist, our loving attention directed towards Him, consoles His Sacred Heart amidst the many outrages and indifference He receives.

          We also console His Sacred Heart by acts of penance, through which we voluntarily suffer in solidarity with the Lord. This is especially true of our acts of penance on Fridays, the day of His Passion, when the Church asks us to abstain from meat, or to substitute another penance if necessary. Yes, not just during Lent – all year round. In Lent we are not allowed to substitute another penance, but outside of Lent we are. That’s the only difference. By fasting and doing penance, we are present with the Lord as He suffers, consoling His Sacred Heart.

          We honor His Sacred Heart by enthroning images of the Sacred Heart in our homes. Enthroning the Sacred Heart (which usually goes along with a family consecration to the Sacred Heart) recognizes the rule of the Heart of Christ over our families and homes. We need these visual reminders of His presence with us. Do the shows we watch, the music we listen to, the conversations we have – do they console or grieve His Heart?

          Just one request, though: When you enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart in your home, please don’t choose the ones with long eyelashes and feminine cheekbones. Being portrayed as effeminate does not console our Lord’s sacred and masculine heart.

          How does this notion of our Lord’s Sacred Heart add something to our relationship with the Lord? Doesn’t it just make things more complicated, or kind of weird, instead of just focusing on “a relationship with Jesus” as such? Thinking about and praying with our Lord’s heart, though, illustrates important aspects of how He is involved in our lives.

          We get one clue from the Mass of the Feast of the Sacred Heart (which we celebrated all last week, keeping alive the traditional Octave of the Sacred Heart). Each Mass’s theme is set by its entrance antiphon. As usual, it comes from the Psalms: “The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the designs of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” The Heart is the place of Providence. When we experience trials and darkness in our lives, it is good to remember that all the events of human history are contained in His Heart.

          A great illustration of that happened three years ago, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade on the Feast of the Sacred Heart. “The designs of His heart are from age to age.” For fifty years, a grave injustice existed in the law of our country, failing to recognize the legal right to life of the unborn child. But the Lord was always at work. The designs of His Heart are from age to age. The unborn were never, and are never, forgotten.

This recognition of the Heart of the Lord as the place of providence leads to trust and confidence in Him. As Jeremiah tells us today, “But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.”

The heart is the place of mercy. St. Paul recalls today that “if by the transgression of the one (Adam) the many (all of us) died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” Christ’s heart overflows with love and mercy! When we despair of being able to overcome sin, we recall His Heart overflowing with love and mercy for sinners, if only we will come to Him!

The heart is the place of courage. In times of difficulty, the Lord, speaking in the Book of Psalms, encourages us: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for the Lord!” This courage is necessary to fulfill His command in the Gospel today: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” When it is difficult to acknowledge Him, we ask for trust in His courageous Heart.

Trust, mercy, and courage. These three gifts from our Lord’s Sacred Heart should be the desire of every Christian, and the motivation to honor and console the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson

Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope, Fort Wayne

XII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI