The heart has ever been the universal symbol of love, so what could be more natural when considering the love of God than to consider His Heart? It is a fact worthy of our deepest considerations that God Himself actually has a real human heart like ours. If one wishes to understand and return the love of God, he cannot do so without considering the Heart of God.
Catholics know this Heart as the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We believe that God the Son became man and took unto Himself a real human heart that was at the same time a truly Divine Heart. When we worship that Heart we are actually worshiping God Himself.
Catholics have worshiped the Sacred Heart of Jesus since the earliest days of the Church. In the 300’s, the heretic Arius mocked Catholics as a cult of “Heart worshipers.” But Our Lord Himself requested that Catholics worship His Heart throughout the centuries, most notably when he appeared to St. Margaret Mary, a French nun living in the 1600’s. Since that time, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has come to almost rival the cross as the universal symbol of Catholicism.
But the physical Heart of Jesus is only the sensible object of our devotion. When we worship this Divine Heart we are ultimately worshiping the love of God. The love which God bears for mankind is the spiritual object of our devotion. Love is the highest motivation, and love was certainly the motivation of the entire earthly life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Can there exist, then, a more perfect devotion than devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
One who wishes to practice this devotion to the Sacred Heart will have two primary ends. The first is to make a return of love in response to the love that God has first shown to us. Can we not reciprocate His love after He has suffered so much to prove that love to us?
The second primary end of this devotion is to make reparation for the insults offered to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. God is very little loved by man today, and His human heart feels that coldness and contempt keenly. Can we not compensate and console His poor suffering Heart?
The only remaining question is how to practice this devotion to the love of God. The principle means of doing so is by giving our own poor hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a practice known as a consecration. By this consecration we simply acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the King of our heart – that He has conquered it by His love and that we wish to surrender to His loving conquests. “The Kingdom of God is within you” (St. Luke 17:21), He has said to us, and we understand this kingdom to be the kingdom of our heart. Let us freely give that kingdom to its rightful King, the King of Love, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come!”
TomNaegeleBlogs 