490. The Sacred Heart of Jesus (III)

Meditations no. 233 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Christ’s heart, pierced by a spear, speaks to us of how much God loves every human being.

Jesus on the Cross, with his heart overflowing with love for us, is such an eloquent testimony of the value of people and things that words only get in the way. Human beings, their happiness and their lives, are so important that the very Son of God gave his life to redeem and cleanse and raise them up. Who will not love this heart so wounded? a contemplative asks on thinking of all this. Who will not return love for love? Who will not embrace a heart so pure? We, who are made of flesh, will repay love with love. We will embrace our wounded one, whose hands and feet ungodly men have nailed; we will cling to his side and to his heart. Let us beg him to keep our heart well fastened with his love and to wound it with a lance, for it is still hard and impenitent.

These are thoughts, affections and conversations which souls in love with Jesus have offered him from the beginning. But if we are to understand this language, if we are to know the truth about the heart of man and Christ’s heart and the love of God, we need both faith and humility. We need the faith and humility that prompted St Augustine to write: You made us for yourself, O Lord, and restless will our hearts be until they rest in you.

If we are not humble, we will try to take possession of God, but not in the divine way which Christ made possible when he said: This is my body, which is for you. The proud person tries to confine the greatness of God within human limits. Then reason turns cold and blind, very different from the kind of thinking that is imbued with faith, and different too from the well-directed mind of someone who is capable of loving and rejoicing in created reality. And this cold, blind reason becomes irrational as we try to measure everything by the yardstick of our cramped human experience. Thus any element of the truth that goes beyond the merely human is drained away, and our heart develops a rationalistic crust that makes it insensitive to the action of the Holy Spirit Our limited intelligence would be doomed then if the merciful power of God did not break down the barriers of our wretchedness. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Light is restored to our soul, which is filled with joy at the promises of sacred Scripture.

I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for evil, was God’s promise through Jeremiah. The liturgy applies these words to Jesus, for in him we are clearly shown that God does love us in this way. He does not come to condemn us, or to remind us of how mean and small we are. He comes to save us, forgive us, excuse us, and bring us peace and joy. Once we truly realize how wonderfully God treats his children, our hearts will undergo a thorough change, and we will see opening up before us an absolutely new panorama, full of depth, perspective, and light.

We have to love souls as much as he does.

But note that God does not say: “In exchange for your own heart, I will give you a will of pure spirit.” No, he gives us a heart, a human heart, like Christ’s. I don’t have one heart for loving God with, and another for loving people. I love Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit and our Lady with the same heart with which I love my parents and my friends. I shall never tire of repeating this. We must be very human, for otherwise we cannot be divine.

Human love, the love we experience on earth when it is really genuine, helps us to savour God’s love. That is how we grasp the love by which we rejoice in God and which we will share in heaven when God our Lord is everything to everyone. If we begin to understand God’s love, we will feel impelled to become increasingly more compassionate, more generous, and more dedicated.

We must give what we receive, we must teach what we learn. Very simply, without any kind of conceit, we must help other people to share in the knowledge of God’s love. As you go about your work, doing your job in society, each of you can and should turn your occupation into a real service. Your work should be done well, mindful of other people’s needs, taking advantage of all advances in technology and culture. Such work fulfils a very important function and is useful to the whole of humanity, if it is motivated by generosity, not selfishness, and directed to the welfare of all, not our own advantage; if it is filled with the Christian sense of life.

Through your work, through the whole network of human relations, you have to show the charity of Christ and its concrete expression in friendship, understanding, human affection and peace. Just as Christ went about doing good, throughout Palestine, so must you also spread peace in your family circle, in civil society, in your professional dealings, and in your cultural and leisure activities. This will be the best proof that the kingdom of God has reached your heart. As St John wrote: We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.

But no one can live out this love unless they are taught in the school of the Heart of Jesus. Only if we watch and contemplate the Heart of Jesus will we ensure that our own hearts are freed from hatred and indifference. Only in this way will we be able to react as Christians to other people’s pain and suffering.

Living in the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The love of Jesus for men is an unfathomable aspect of the divine mystery: the love of the Son for the Father and the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, the bond of love between the Father and the Son, encounters in the Word a human heart.

It is impossible to speak of these central facts of our faith without feeling the limitations of our minds and the greatness of revelation. Yet even if we cannot fully grasp these truths that overawe our reason, we believe them humbly and firmly. Backed by Christ’s words, we know they are true. We know that the Love in the depths of the Trinity is poured out on us by the love in the Heart of Christ.

Living in Christ’s Heart, being closely united with him, means, therefore, that we become a dwelling-place for God. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, our Lord told us. And Christ and the Father in the Holy Spirit come to the soul and make their home there.

Even if we only give a little thought to these basic ideas, our whole attitude changes. We become hungry for God, and we make our own the words of the Psalm: O God, thou art my God, I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee. My flesh faints for thee as in a dry and weary land where no water is. And Jesus, who has encouraged these desires in us, comes out to meet us and says: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He offers us his heart, so that we can find both rest and strength there. If we accept his invitation, we will see that his words are true. And our hunger and thirst will increase to the point that we desire God really to inhabit our soul and never to take his light and warmth away from us.

Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur? I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! We have approached the fire of the love of God. Let us allow that fire to burn our lives. Let us feed the desire to spread that divine fire throughout the world, by making it known to all the people around us. They too can experience the peace of Christ and find happiness there. A Christian who lives united to Christ’s heart can have no goals but these: peace in society, peace in the Church, peace in his own soul, the peace of God which will reach its climax when his kingdom comes.

Mary, you are Regina Pacis, Queen of peace, because you had faith and believed that what the Angel had said would in fact happen. Help us to grow in the faith, to have a firm hope and a deeper love. For that is what your Son wants of us this day; that is why he shows us his Sacred Heart.