The Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Discussion on the Perennial Sacrifice

As the world turns, the world sins. The modern age has brought with it death, hate and indifference; but in the midst of such suffering, the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us of the promise of eternal life. Especially today, Catholics must be reminded that the Sacred Heart still beats — and still bleeds.

Each summer, usually in June, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We celebrate and draw nearer to the mercy and tenderness of Christ Jesus, and see in Him the close, personal relationship He so desires with each of us which, unfortunately, has been lost in some modern Christian conceptions of God.

In a poetic sense, the human heart represents the center of our being, where all of our passions and desires reside. David Richo, a Catholic author and psychotherapist, writes that “our heart is the soft center of the egoless self, and it has one desire; to open.” We have a profound yearning to receive Christ, inscribed on our souls by our Creator, which fuels both our physical and theological lives. The heart is not only the body’s life-sustaining organ and the physical engine of our bodies, but also the metaphysical sanctuary of our thoughts and the source of our deepest feelings. It is just so with Jesus. As Richo writes, “contemplation of Jesus’ Heart shows us how deep we really are, how vast our potential for love, how high our aspiration for the light.” Despite this, “Catholics” seem to be ignoring the very real and very earnest cries of Jesus’ heart.

According to Bishop Donald J. Hying of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, the apparitions that appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1670s which gave us the message of the Sacred Heart exposed not only Jesus’ deep desire to love humanity, and how humanity may reciprocate that love, but also the need for a theological correction regarding the understanding of Christ as God. He writes that there is a modern distortion in Christian spirituality, and the Sacred Heart is the key to recollecting the correct image of Christ. The Sacred Heart, “pierced and crucified — offering salvation and mercy — … longs for us to offer our love and devotion in return … the Sacred Heart beckons us to enter into the divine furnace of charity.” 

In the centuries since the founding of the Church on earth, some Christians developed a conception of God the Father as a harsh, almighty judge who reigns from His heavenly throne, dispensing punishment on the impious. However, this image of God as a distant, fearsome arbiter risks rendering Him as unapproachable and unfriendly, as one who only comes in contact with us when we sin. Such a rendering of God makes a personal relationship with Him incredibly difficult. In the modern world, one flushed with immorality, our understanding of His closeness to mankind, His abounding mercy and His salvific sacrifice becomes muddied. Our desire to know Him and to follow Him is diminished, and the love that emanates from the Trinity is in part obscured. 

It is no wonder that sacrilege, blasphemy and indifference have flourished in the secular world, but what is most frightening is their presence among self-proclaimed Catholics.

Incredibly, according to Pew Research Center, only 31% of Catholics in the United States believe in the Real Presence and 69% say that the Consecrated Host is only a symbol of the true Body.

I am not a theologian, nor a priest nor any kind of Christological expert. But as a Catholic, I am not afraid to profess, firmly and resolutely, the Real Presence of Christ. The doctrine of the Holy Eucharist leaps out from Scripture and Church teaching. In the beautiful words of Christ Himself: “I myself am the living bread come down from Heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world … For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink. The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:51-57). He is giving His whole life — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity — His entire self. These are not symbolic words; Christ means exactly what He says. The very next day, He endured hours of relentless scourging, beatings, humiliations and torture at the hands of the very people He came to save. He hung upon the altar of the Cross, spilling His blood to wash away our sins.

Every time we celebrate Mass, we are witnesses to the very real life, death and resurrection of Christ. Every time we celebrate Mass, the Sacred Heart of Jesus undergoes every lashing, every cut, every agonizing breath of his Passion again and again so that we may be saved. It is truly a perennial sacrifice, stretching out beyond time. In “Ecclesia de Eucharistia,” Pope John Paul II strongly affirms this notion, writing that “at every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the paschal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper, and to what followed it. The institution of the Eucharist sacramentally anticipated the events which were about to take place, beginning with the agony in Gethsemane” (§3). 

If every time we celebrate the Eucharist, Jesus dies again for us, then every time a Mass happens, anywhere in the world, Jesus suffers for us. Every second of every day, the Sacred Heart of Jesus bleeds for the forgiveness of our sins, for somewhere in the world, a Mass is being said. Every time your heart beats, there is a Mass that witnesses the events of Calvary. For those who do not believe in the Real Presence, those who receive the sacrificed Christ with an oblivious indifference, it is an affront to the beating, burning Sacred Heart which exists in a very real way in each and every Mass. St. Paul says “a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, is eating and drinking his own condemnation” (1 Cor. 11:29).

To contemplate the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to understand the Word as such, is to encounter the fullness of the Gospel which is not only the almighty moral arbiter, but also a loving, caring personal friend. Bishop Hying writes that “the Sacred Heart of Jesus that began beating in the womb of the Blessed Virgin more than 2,000 years ago still beats today in the glorified humanity of the Risen Christ. And it will pulsate forever.” With every breath you take, Christ’s sacrifice sustains and saves us, and not just in a metaphorical sense, but in the most real sense possible. How do you show your gratitude?

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