By Fr. Bud Grant
SAU Theological Perspective
The Sacred Heart of Jesus was one of my father’s favorite devotions. His other was St. Jude, despite he and my mom working two or more jobs each to feed their large family — I am one of nine children — he made donations regularly to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. About the Sacred Heart, I don’t know what attracted him to that devotion but I know that I saw the very same icon in my aunt’s and uncle’s houses. If you are old enough, you will recall it: soft pastel colors, a doe-eyed Christ, his heart wreathed in a crown of thorns resting on the outside of his white tunic. As a kid, I found it both odd and intensely attractive. Now, as an adult, it has become my own favorite devotion.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (like that of the Sacred Heart of Mary) isn’t all that old by Catholic standards. It is attributed to a French nun, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque (d. 1690). It has a long pre-history, being referenced by the Polish Jesuit Kasper Drużbicki (d. 1662), Gertrude of Helfta (d.1302), Bonaventure (d. 1274), Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) and Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153). Pope Leo XIII dedicated the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Annum Sacrum (“Holy Year”) in 1899. (Papal encyclicals all take their title from the first two words of that encyclical.)
A few weeks ago, Pope Francis issued his most recent encyclical, Dilexit Nos, “He Loved Us.” This phrase is derived from Rom. 8:39. In it, the pope urges Catholics to encounter the Sacred Heart as “the radical source of their strengths, convictions, passions and decisions” (DN 9). The image of the heart, Pope Francis says, evokes a kind of intelligence rooted in the connections among people, which is to say it is the will to love one another, to seek justice (29). “Heart” stands for passion, which, like the Greek word πάθος (pathos), means intense feeling, affection, even ecstasy and suffering. In our ecclesial lexicon it refers to the “passion of Christ,” meaning suffering, for sure, but more importantly, the exquisite love for humanity that reaches its consummation in the crucifixion (46).
In this context, the Sacred Heart of Jesus references God’s mercy or forgiveness. This gift (or “grace”) is the prerequisite for creating more just relationships. Christ’s heart went out to the marginalized, such as women (35); the afflicted, whom he often touches (36) or simply looks at, genuinely seeing them (39), and urges the injured to “take heart” (37). It is divine empathy, Christ being moved, grieved, moaning, weeping.
That the Son of God should “suffer” such intense feelings would seem to insult his divinity but it actually emphasizes our highest humanity. The Greek word σπλαχνιζωμαι (splaknizomai) means something like “to be gutted” in the British sense. Literally, it is to be so sorrowful that one’s insides are eaten out. It is used rarely in the New Testament, such as in Mt. 20:30 when Jesus was “moved to his core by pity” for the blind man Bartimaeus.
The Sacred Heart suggests a couple of theological insights. First, it honors emotions as legitimate expressions of ethics and spirituality vs. the classical, distain for feelings and its emphasis on reason. Secondly, it suggests the most basic and original soteriology (a discipline that examines what we mean by saying that “Christ saves us”). We are saved by Christ’s death not because he is exchanging his life for ours in some barter with God or the devil but because he is showing us that The Way to salvation is by loving the other more than one’s self. We disciples are called to follow Christ through Golgotha to the Resurrection and not only for ourselves, but for everyone, “πολλοί.” This is what we mean in the unfortunately mistranslated Eucharistic Prayer, “this is my blood which will be shed for many,” which really means “for all” (πολλοί).
Our Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart should make us empathetic to those who feel threatened. We must assure women, LGBTQ+, undocumented immigrants and people of color that they are cherished, not feared; respected, not despised; seen, not stereotyped; protected, not vilified. This is not a political statement. It is, rather, the expression of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We who experience Christ’s merciful love can no more deny that grace to others than a flame can refuse to radiate light. Or, as Pope Francis prays in our name: “I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that his Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world. Until that day when we will rejoice in celebrating together the banquet of the heavenly kingdom in the presence of the risen Lord, who harmonizes all our differences in the light that radiates perpetually from his open heart. May he be blessed forever (220).”
(Father Bud Grant is a professor of theology at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.)
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