“Why should I worship an inanimate object?”
Was it an honest question or was it Catholic-bashing masquerading as flippancy? I’ll never know because the question was posed as a reply to a social media post about devotion to the Sacred Heart.
During June, Catholics around the globe honor the Sacred Heart, culminating in the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which this year falls on June 27 (it’s a moveable feast that falls on the Friday after the Corpus Christi octave each year.)
The feast day and month-long celebration has nothing to do with worshipping an inanimate object. Is has everything to do with lauding the boundless love of God for humanity in spite of everything we have done to betray, mock and ignore Him. We should be giving thanks and repenting, not trading barbs with online trolls.
If you think this devotion to the Heart of Jesus isn’t a big deal, keep in mind that there have been no less than FOUR encyclicals written on the Sacred Heart. So much for downplaying this devotion. It’s more like quadrupling-down.
A read through these thought-provoking, very approachable, documents makes for an edifying use of time (which is markedly superior to doom-scrolling.) The Soulful Catholic highly recommends checking these out:
Pope Leo XIII issued Annum Sacrum (On Consecration to the Sacred Heart) in 1899, referring to it as a “most excellent devotion.”
Pius XI wrote Miserentissiumus Redemptor (Merciful Redeemer) in 1928 about reparation to the Sacred Heart.
Pope Pius XII penned Haurietis Aquas (On the Sacred Heart) in 1956 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of a universal feast day.
In 2024, just seven months prior to his death, Pope Francis issued Dilexit Nos (He loved us), subtitled, “On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
And, when Pope Leo stepped out on that balcony last month after his brother cardinals elected him pontiff, he gave a brief address. Among his comments was this gem:
“God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail!”
This is the message the world desperately needs right now. I mean, let’s shout it from the rooftops: The love of God is unconditional and eternal! God is for us! He sent His Son to redeem us. This is the messaging the Catholic Church (and every church) needs to proclaim relentlessly.
Yes, yes, we all need to repent, beginning with me. But if we repent, it is because we have experienced His merciful love in spite of our wickedness and weakness.
It’s a love that flows from His Sacred Heart, the very center of His being.
After Peter betrayed the Lord three times, Jesus, risen from the dead, asked him, “Peter, do you love Me?” Three times, Peter was able to express his love for the Lord. He found refuge in the merciful Heart that did not scorn him or remind him of his faults but rather invited him to return and start over.
It was the same Heart, human and divine, that began beating in Mary’s womb just days after Gabriel’s stunning announcement.
The same Heart that thumped with exertion as it labored away in Nazareth.
The same Heart that was moved with compassion for the infirm, the possessed, the hungry and the outcast.
The same Heart that throbbed with love for each of us as it beat its last there from the cross, pierced for our sins and broken by our ingratitude.
As we cherish the Sacred Heart this month, let us rededicate ourselves to loving the Heart that loves us so greatly.
There’s nothing we can do to earn that. It’s a love that’s bestowed wholeheartedly and without reserve for every sinner everywhere. And it calls us to respond in kind, with sorrow for sin, gratitude for mercy, and sacrificial love.
Perhaps the person who dismisses this emphasis on the Sacred Heart as old-fashioned or idolatrous ought to consider these words of Pope Francis: “Devotion to the heart of Christ is not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus … more than any other part of his body, the heart of Jesus is the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love (Dilexit Nos #48).”
In the words of Pope Leo XIII, “Praise to the divine heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor forever.”
PRAYER OPPORTUNITY: Join Catholics around the world in praying the Consecration to the Sacred Heart this month and every day!
Most sweet Jesus, redeemer of the human race, look down upon us, humbly prostrate before your altar. We are yours and yours we wish to be; but to be more surely united with you, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to your most sacred heart. Many, indeed, have never known you, many too, despising your precepts, have rejected you. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to your sacred heart. Be you king, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken you, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned you; grant that they may quickly return to their father’s house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be you king of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Be you king also of all those who sit in the ancient superstition of the Gentiles, and refuse not you to deliver them out of darkness into the light and kingdom of God. Grant, O Lord, to your Church, assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor forever.
Amen.
