June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Friday following Corpus Christi Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion to the Sacred Heart was one that developed over time in the Church. We see different Saints throughout the centuries who have meditated in a particular way on the Heart of Jesus Christ that was wounded out of love for us. There were different Saint Mystics who talked about this. St. Gertrude the Great, who wrote a series of spiritual reflections titled, “The Herald of Divine Love” where she reflects on the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. So she writes about Jesus’ heart:
“O Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of eternal life, Your Heart is a glowing furnace of Love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary. O my adorable and loving Savior, consume my heart with the burning fire with which Yours is aflamed.”
St. Bonaventure, an important Franciscan Saint (who wrote an important biography of St. Francis of Assisi), wrote about how the Sacraments flow from the heart of Jesus. When Jesus’ heart was wounded on the Cross, the water and blood that flowed from his side (John 19:1; 1 John 5:6)
“…The blood and water, which poured out at that moment, were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.”
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1600s in France, is the most Famous for popularizing devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. she had visions of Christ who appeared to her, that gave her the famous image we have now: Jesus’ heart bound in thorns, wounded, and on fire with love.
“Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love.”
St. Margaret Mary also saw a deep connection between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist.
This is confirmed by Eucharistic Miracles, when the Blessed Sacrament has miraculously manifested as bleeding flesh, it has manifested as living human heart tissue!
When Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini founded her women’s missionary order, they were inspired by the Sacred Heart of Jesus and so named their order the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
“The love of Christ urges us on” St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:14. As we meditate on the Sacred Heart of Jesus this month, let us be inspired on by His burning love for us. May His heart transform our heart to live with Divine Love.
Peace
-Fr. Kevin
