The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the urgency of divine love

In 1673, Jesus began appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a humble nun of the Visitation Order, in Paray Le Monial, France. He revealed to her the tender wonders of his love for her, desiring through her to reveal these same wonders to the whole world.

In the course of his revelations to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus complained of our ingratitude. But his complaint was weighted with the sorrow of a lover who does not know what else he can do to gain the attention of his beloved, a beloved who is totally distracted and uncomprehending. 

In the great apparition, which occurred sometime during the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1675, Jesus said–in what must have been an imploring spirit–”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.”

We should ask ourselves: “What is it we behold, what is it we see, when we look at the Heart of Christ? What is Jesus trying so hard to show us?”

It is interesting that Jesus says, “Behold the heart,” and not: “Behold My heart.” Jesus, in his Incarnation, comes to reveal the Father to us. Scripture says Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). He tells the Apostles, “If you see me, you see the Father” (Jn 14:9).

So is he not really saying, “Behold my Heart, which is the Heart of the Father! If you only knew the depths of His love?”

One of the most compelling revelations of the heart of God in Scripture is found in the father of the prodigal son. The younger son, returning home after losing everything, is in survival mode. He approaches the father completely broken by his own sinful choices. He has utterly spurned his father’s love and squandered every gift that has been given to him.

Yet the love in the heart of the father who has been anxiously watching and praying for his son’s return sees only that his son is back. And though the son has no real expectations, other than to be treated as a slave, the father’s response instead is an explosion of love! He orders the best robe, a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet and the commencement of a feast. 

His heart has no other response–not anger, not judgment, not punishment–only rejoicing, tearful embraces and celebration. Perhaps we are sometimes held back from approaching or returning to our Father, because we have the same poor expectations as the prodigal son did. Our defective appreciation of God’s love only harms us.

The sufferings of our lives, especially those that come from our sinful choices, wound our hearts and often plunge us into our own little hells on earth. But the Wound in the Heart of Christ, which we caused, is different. It is a gateway into the Father’s love. Entering that Wound takes us on our first steps into heaven.

Witness the promises of Jesus to those who recognize his love, the Father’s love, and seek to live in the Heart that is the source of that love. These promises were given to St. Margaret Mary as part of the revelations of Divine Love and are made to those who are devoted to Jesus’ Sacred Heart:

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in my heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in my heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes where an image of my heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in my heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of my heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their sacraments; my heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

Does that not already sound like heaven begun on earth? Is that not what we are seeking?

But there is even more. Poor as we really are, and we are all poor in the presence of God–just as stripped as the prodigal son we have the possibility of being able to bring joy and consolation to the Heart of Jesus, to the Heart of the Father, by returning to him, by remembering him in the ways he asks above. 

This helps repair, in some mysterious and superabundant way, the hurt Jesus feels, the hurt the Father feels, over the indifference and ingratitude of the vast majority of men. When we behold the Sacred Heart that has loved us so, these are small requests. But fulfilling them can transform our lives.