A statue depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Photo: OSV News /Gregory A. Shemitz. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus produces one ultimate, marvellous fruit: a heart like Jesus’ own. Near the end of the Litany of the Sacred Heart, we pray that “Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, touch our hearts and make them like your own”.
Gentleness and humility shape the heart of the one who follows Jesus. The gift bestowed on those devoted to the Sacred Heart is not merely to receive something, but to become like the one they love.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is charity incarnate. It is divine charity made flesh, and through that flesh charity courses as the lifeblood of the world. To draw nearer to the Sacred Heart is to enter the chambers of charity, to move with its flow and to become animated with its life.
As St John Eudes writes: “Devotion to the Sacred Heart, being the beautiful flower of charity, must produce the same fruits of virtue. It is not a devotion of feeling or words, but of actions; not only of prayers, but of conformity with the virtues of the divine Heart.”
Love
St Margaret Mary Alacoque taught similarly, leading her sisters to adopt humility before the love of God and meekness, or gentleness, in reliance on the love of Jesus’ heart. In this way, devotion itself leads the devotee to share in the very love they adore.
The 12 promises of the Sacred Heart are Jesus’ pledge to make the devotion and charity of those who adore his heart truly fruitful. To adore his heart is an act of faith, trusting that his promises are true. Those who begin to devote themselves to his heart cannot taste this fruit beforehand; it is only through the devotion itself that these fruits become available.
Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy”
In contemplating these promises, it is possible to discern four degrees of conformity to Christ’s love. This progression reaches down to our weakness, both in sin and affliction, moves forward in strengthening, grows toward sanctification, and finally arrives at the gift of abiding in union.
The first gift is healing. The Lord promises: “I will comfort them in all their afflictions”; “Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy”; and, through the First Friday devotion, the grace of final penance and refuge in his heart at the hour of death. The Sacred Heart thus heals afflictions, heals the breaches of sin and heals the final rupture of death.
The second gift is strengthening. From his Sacred Heart, the Lord not only restores health to his friends but also builds them up for service in the world. He promises the graces necessary for each person’s state of life, blessing upon their undertakings, and to priests the gift of touching hardened hearts. The Lord equips those he calls with what they need for their mission.
The third gift is sanctifying. The fruits of the Sacred Heart do not end with what devotees become capable of doing, but move on to what they themselves become. The Lord promises: “I will be their strength during life and above all during death”; “Tepid souls shall grow fervent”; and “Fervent souls shall quickly mount to higher perfection.” Those devoted to the Sacred Heart not only receive strength, but become strong themselves. Drinking from the source of charity, they become sources of charity for others.
Abiding
The final gift is abiding. The end of creation, redemption and sanctification is to rest in the love of God and to become a resting place for that love. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity”. Even now, we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.
From his Sacred Heart, Jesus promises nothing less than this gift of abiding with God, in God, by the love of God. He promises peace in homes, blessing wherever a picture of his Heart is honoured, and that those who promote this devotion shall have their names written in his Heart, never to be blotted out.
The first two promises may seem domestic or ordinary. But the love that flows from the Sacred Heart makes even the places where we dwell into antechambers of heaven. Homes where the Sacred Heart is adored become filled with the peace of Christ, the same peace he gives his friends.
The heart that adores the Sacred Heart becomes what the Sacred Heart is: a dwelling place for divine love.
Leonard J. DeLorenzo is a professor of the practice in the McGrath Institute for Church Life and concurrent professor in the department of theology at the University of Notre Dame.