Heart of the Redeemer

By Timothy O'Donnell

In this revised, updated edition of Heart of the Redeemer, Timothy O'Donnell synthesizes years of research to provide a thorough presentation of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He examines the doctrinal roots of the devotion in Scripture and in documents from the Apostolic and Patristic Ages; charts its growth and development through the Middle Ages; explains the enormous contribution of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque; and presents magisterial teaching on the subject, including statements from Vatican Council II, recent popes, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The book also includes images illustrating the development of the devotion.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a response to the tremendous love of Christ as symbolized by his human heart pierced on Calvary. At the core of Catholic spiritual life, the devotion is a key to effective renewal of the Church and the world. Those who have not yet embraced this devotion—or who want to understand it more deeply and practice it more fully--will discover its profound richness and beauty in Heart of the Redeemer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781681497860

Timothy O'Donnell

Dr. Timothy T. O'Donnell is the President of Christendom College, a four-year, Roman Catholic, liberal arts college with a graduate program in theological studies. Christendom's 200 acre campus is located on the beautiful and historic Shenandoah River in Front Royal, Virginia. Dr. O'Donnell describes the education offered by Christendom as one "which leads the student to the consecration of the intellect and will to Christ." Dr. O'Donnell received his early education at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated with B.A. degrees in Philosophy and History. He continued there, achieving the M.A. in Church History. He completed his academic pursuits at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (Angelicum), where he was the first layman to receive a doctorate in Ascetical and Mystical Theology. In 2002, Dr. O'Donnell was appointed a consulter to the Pontifical Council for the Family by Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI renewed this appointment in 2009. He is a Knight Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and is a member of many other organizations, including the Catholic Academy of Sciences and The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the Institute on Religious Life, the Cardinal Newman Society, and the Institute of Catholic Culture. He received the Cardinal Newman Society Award for "Excellence in Catholic Higher Education," in addition to the 2012 Bowie Kuhn Special Award for Evangelization from Legatus. Dr. O'Donnell is the author of Heart of the Redeemer, a theological investigation and spiritual guide to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and Swords Around the Cross, a historical investigation of a crucial period in the history of Catholic Ireland. He is a frequent lecturer for EWTN, producing numerous programs of theological and historical interest. Dr. O'Donnell and his wife, Catherine, have nine children and 12 grandchildren. They reside on their farm "Tir Connaill" in Stephens City, Virginia.

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FOREWORD

by

Gerhard Cardinal Müller

The faithful in the United States of America will be grateful for this revised and updated edition of Christendom College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell’s Heart of the Redeemer. I had the distinct honor of delivering the commencement address in 2017 at Christendom, where I experienced the reality of students being formed deeply in the Catholic intellectual tradition so as to bring the Catholic faith deeply into the culture of the United States.

How urgent it is for the Catholic faithful of today to realize the deep congruence between the doctrine of the Church and the praxis of life. In the case of this rich topic, the depths of the spiritual life can be discovered. For when one separates doctrine from life, regarding them as two separate realities, one loses the necessary role of doctrine in guiding the believer into the mystery of the Person of Jesus Christ. With this text, we are led into the source of all life, the wellspring of all grace, our place of refuge in the midst of the turbulent storms caused by attempts to remove God from the world: the actual Heart of the Redeemer. With this text, we therefore discover again the doctrinal truths within the wellspring of salvation, the Heart of Jesus, fully human, fully divine.

Furthermore, the theological method that Dr. O’Donnell applies in this accessible text with images is that which is proposed by the Second Vatican Council as the genetic method. It is this method which begins in the sources of Scriptures and tradition, continues with the Fathers of the Church, then traces the origin and the development of the doctrine into the Middle Ages. It is completed with the current Magisterium of the Church with regard to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The use of a saint, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, xi xii heart of the redeemer illustrates how doctrine is the guide to a life of holiness, how the truths of salvation are able to take deep root in the heart of the human person.

My prayer for the revised edition of this book is that it may bear fruit in the spiritual lives of the faithful as well as inspire future theologians within the Church in the United States to bear in mind this wonderful example of theological method.

Gerhard Cardinal Müller

Former Prefect

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Rome, Italy, September 14, 2017

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

FOREWORD

by

Father Wojciech Giertych, O.P.

Did Jesus commit suicide? This is an intriguing question that we have every right to raise. In fact, Saint Thomas Aquinas asked this question, and in his response he differentiated between a direct and an indirect cause. To make his argumentation more comprehensible, he explained it through an example. If you leave a book on the windowsill and it gets soaked in the rain, what has caused its getting wet? The rain is the direct cause, but you are the indirect cause, because you exposed the book to the rain. Similarly, the direct cause of the piercing of the Heart of Jesus was the spear of the soldier, but indirectly Jesus himself was the cause, because he willingly accepted his death. He did not stop his executioners. He freely allowed himself to be arrested and crucified, and this supreme gift of self expressed his supreme love for us.

Jesus freely took upon himself the situation of man, both the external situation of the one who is suffering as a result of circumstances that befall him and also the internal situation of the one who painfully experiences the limitations of his own will, who cannot free himself from his sin, who cannot raise himself from his own humiliating weakness. Jesus situated himself freely in the place of the sinner, who understands that in justice he deserves to be punished and yet is locked in a quandary because he cannot free himself from sin. Jesus, being without sin, took upon himself the limitations of sinful humanity, and with his divine power, his divine love, he conquered the slavery of sin and death. He came out of the utter humiliation of Calvary victorious, risen from the dead! In his free gift of self, Jesus conquered all human frailty, all degradation and rejection, both that which comes xiii xiv heart of the redeemer from without and that in which the sinner locks himself through his own sin and resulting self-contempt. Jesus conquered all human ills with the power of his love. Thus he is telling enslaved man: You can come out of the evil of your sin, of your self-contempt, of your weakness, if only you will hold onto my divine love. That love is given in the Paschal Mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection.

The will of God is common to all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. But in Jesus’ humanity, there is a human will besides his divine will. There is also a human Heart. Jesus thought with a human mind, he acted with a human will, he worked with human hands, and with a human Heart he loved. With a human will and a human Heart, Jesus loved us to the very end on the Cross. He took upon himself sinful humanity, with all its weakness and frailty and feeling of helplessness, and from that humanity, illuminated from within by his divinity, Jesus conquered sin and death. Viewing Jesus’ utter gift, the heavenly Father exclaims: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Why is the Father pleased, viewing the suffering of Jesus? Is not this perversion? It is not, because the Father views the divine love of Jesus, and it is this divine love in the Heart of Jesus, given totally to mankind, that the Father finds pleasing. In Jesus’ human Heart, the fullness of divine love is made manifest. Even more, it is offered to sinful humanity. The Father perceives Jesus’ solidarity with each and every human being locked in sin, as he offers salvation to all. And it is this supreme gift of Jesus that the Father finds pleasing.

We can come closer to this divine perception of the Father in heaven by imagining the reaction of a human father who hears about the death of his daughter, who as a religious missionary sister has been killed in a distant country. The parents hearing that their daughter died a martyr’s death will be sad, but, on a deeper level, they may experience a spiritual joy, seeing that the love they taught their child has finally taken over her heart, totally!

The heavenly Father perceives the magnitude of divine love given to humanity on the Cross of Jesus. He sees how Jesus is telling sinful men, those who are sometimes locked in despair, that there is a way out. Jesus is saying: Hold onto the divine gift that is gushing from my human Heart. This divine aid is given every day, whenever the sacraments of the Church, immersed in the Paschal Mystery, are foreword xv celebrated. It is given whenever in faith and love the human heart meets with the glorified Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The person who is lost, perplexed, locked in self-contempt, experiencing weakness in the face of temptations, in his poverty needs a helping hand. Such a person needs not only a slice of bread, some human aid, even the compassion of a human heart. Such a person needs to be led in faith toward the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of Christ’s open Heart. He needs to be shown that it is possible to trust in the Heart of Jesus. It is possible to build upon the graces flowing from the Cross.

That is the purpose of this book.

Wojciech Giertych, O.P.

Theologian of the Papal Household

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO

THE SECOND EDITION

It is a joy to dedicate this expanded new edition of Heart of the Redeemer to Pope Saint John Paul II. Because of his heroic efforts and powerful apostolic witness, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is once again flourishing throughout the world. This new edition has incorporated new material in the scriptural and patristic chapters along with the important and timely teaching found in the latter half of Saint John Paul’s pontificate. The teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerning the devotion along with the contributions of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have also demonstrated and vindicated the hermeneutic of continuity. This devotion of devotions, which focuses on the love of God revealed in his Beloved Son Jesus Christ, is truly a timeless and essential part of the Christian faith. The Divine Mercy devotion has become a beautiful new manifestation of the timeliness of the devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Pope Francis’ emphasis in his pontificate on the centrality of mercy in the Christian life as seen in his homilies, in his addresses, and, above all, in his proclamation of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy is a further confirmation of the centrality of the devotion to the Heart of Jesus for the Christian faith.

Dear brothers and sisters, today we proclaim this singular victory, by which Jesus became the King of every age, the Lord of history: with the sole power of love, which is the nature of God, his very life, and which has no end (cf. 1 Cor 13:8). We joyfully share the splendor of having Jesus as our King: his rule of love transforms sin into grace, death into resurrection, fear into trust. . . . As God believes in us, infinitely beyond any merits we have, so too we are called to instill hope and provide opportunities to others. Because even if the Holy Door closes, the true door of mercy which is the heart of Christ always remains open wide for us. From the lacerated side of the Risen One until the very end of time flow mercy, consolation and hope. (Homily of Pope Francis, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, November 20, 2016)

I am so deeply grateful in the Lord to all those who have benefited from this work and hope that this new expanded edition will lead many more souls to discover the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of the Heart of Jesus, which surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:18).

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the greatest human expression of divine love. . . . It is a real symbol which represents the center, the source from which salvation flowed for all of humanity. . . . The mercy of Jesus is not only an emotion; it is a force which gives life then raises man!. . . Let’s think about this, it’s beautiful: God’s mercy gives life to man, it raises him from the dead. Let us not forget that the Lord always watches over us with mercy; he always watches over us with mercy. Let us not be afraid of approaching him! He has a merciful heart! If we show him our inner wounds, our inner sins, he will always forgive us. It is pure mercy. Let us go to Jesus! (Pope Francis, Angelus Address, Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, June 9, 2013)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am clearly indebted to a number of fine works on the devotion, particularly those of Father Larkin, Father Stierli, Father Hugo Rahner, Father Kern, and the Apostleship of Prayer. I truly feel like a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants, to use the expression of Saint Bernard of Chartres. I have built upon this common foundation by organizing, expanding, and developing this material in a single volume. It is my earnest hope that this will meet the needs of priests and laity in their efforts to foster the devotion as a source of renewal for the Church.

I would like to thank Father Jordan Aumann, O.P., my mentor at the Angelicum in Rome. I would also like to thank my parents for their generous love and support in nurturing me in the faith.

A special word of thanks to my executive assistant, Brenda Seelbach, for her help in the revised and expanded edition.

Lastly, I wish to thank my dearest wife, Catherine, for her patient assistance in typing and proofing the manuscript. Without her loving support this book would not exist.

"So we know and believe the love God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God. . . .

We love, because he first loved us." (1 Jn 4:16, 19)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AAS     Acta Apostolicae Sedis

AS     Leo XIII, Encyclical on Consecration to the Sacred Heart, Annum Sacrum, May 25, 1899

CarCC     Pius XI, Encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Caritate Christi Compulsi, May 3, 1932

CCC     Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed.

DC     John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on the Mystery and Worship of the Holy Eucharist, Dominicae Cenae, February 24, 1980

DCE     Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter on Christian Love, Deus Caritas Est, December 25, 2005

DH     Heinrich Denzinger, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Peter Hunermann; English ed. Robert Fastiggi and Anne Englund Nash (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012)

DM     John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, November 30, 1980

DV     John Paul II, Encyclical Letter on the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World, Dominum et Vivificantem, May 18, 1986

EG     Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, Evangelii Gaudium, November 24, 2013

GS     Vatican Council II, Pastoral on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, December 7, 1965

HA     Pius XII, Encyclical Letter on Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Haurietis Aquas, May 15, 1956

IDC     Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Investigabiles Divitias Christi, February 2, 1965 xxi xxii heart of the redeemer

LG     Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964

MD     Pius XII, Encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy, Mediator Dei, November 20, 1947

MR     Pius XI, Encyclical on Reparation to the Sacred Heart, Miserentissimus Redemptor, May 8, 1928

PG     J. P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus Graeca (Paris: Garnier Fratres, 1878)

PL     J. P. Migne, Patrologia cursus completus Latina (Paris: Garnier Fratres, 1878)

QP     Pius XI, Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925

RH     John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, March 4, 1979

RM     John Paul II, Encyclical Letter on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church, Redemptoris Mater, March 25, 1987

SC     Vatican Council II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963

SD     John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, Salvifici Doloris, February 11, 1984

SOCV     Sacrosanctum Oecumenicum Concilium Vaticanum II (Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1966)

SR     Pius XII, Encyclical on the Council of Chalcedon, Sempiternus Rex, September 8, 1951

INTRODUCTION

I have attempted not so much to speak with authority of things that I know, as to seek to know them by speaking about them with reverence.

—Saint Augustine, De Trinitate

In our inquiry into the devotion to the Sacred Heart and its perennial value, it is best to begin with a proper understanding of what is meant by devotion. Saint Thomas Aquinas defines devotion as a willingness to give oneself readily to what concerns the service of God (Summa, II-II, q. 82, a. 1). Accordingly, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus appears essentially as a worship of and a response to the Person of Christ as viewed from the perspective of his divine and human love, which is manifested through his sacred humanity and is symbolized by his wounded physical Heart. In his masterful encyclical Haurietis Aquas,¹ Pope Pius XII gives the following definition of this devotion: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of its very nature, is a worship of the love with which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to other men (HA 107).

From this definition, it can be seen that authentic devotion to the Sacred Heart is not merely an optional set of pious practices (which may be very helpful) but is an essential element of the Christian way of life. All Christians are called to the comprehension of certain truths concerning God and to a response in love to them. In living a life in imitation of Christ, as found in the Gospels and taught by the Church, the Christian should use all the spiritual aids offered to him by God. He should fill his life with an ever-growing and deepening love for God and his fellowman. Every Christian will build his own unique spirituality upon this common foundation, which should include a response to the Heart of Christ that gives honor to the divine love and is offered for the sake of that love.

It would be accurate to say that by the middle of the twentieth century the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had universally triumphed throughout the Church. Everywhere in the world, churches, monasteries, and congregations were to be found dedicated to the Sacred Heart. In virtually every Catholic church, one would find a statue of our Lord revealing his Heart. Large numbers of the faithful gathered on every continent for First Friday devotions, the Holy Hour, and other pious practices associated with the devotion. This triumphal procession, however, was not welcomed in all quarters, and the devotion began to draw criticism from some Catholic theologians who began to question certain aspects of these devotional exercises. Some outside, and even within, the Church questioned the theological foundation of the devotion.

Pope Pius XII was well aware of the objections that some were making to the devotion. It is because of these objections that the Holy Father wrote his encyclical on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in it he exhorted the faithful to a more earnest consideration of those principles which take their origin from Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers and theologians, which form the solid foundation for the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pope went on to call for and stress the importance of a profound study of the primary and loftier nature of this devotion with the aid of the light of the divinely revealed truth, so that we might rightly and fully appreciate its incomparable excellence and the inexhaustible abundance of its heavenly favors. The Holy Father ended his appeal by requesting a devout meditation and contemplation (HA 19) upon the benefits of the devotion.

After the publication of Haurietis Aquas, many books were written on the devotion. These works varied tremendously in size and quality. They included pious or devotional works, popular pamphlets, and mystical writings that described extraordinary supernatural experiences.

There is still a need for a systematic theological exposition and defense of the devotion that will lead to a deeper penetration and understanding of it, as was requested by Pius XII and subsequent pontiffs. It is my most earnest hope and prayer that this book will help in some way to answer the call of the Holy Father and will contribute to a greater understanding of our Lord’s Heart, which is so full of infinite majesty and compassion.

The encyclical and devotion both, unfortunately, seem to have been downplayed or overshadowed, if you will, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Many today object to the devotion for a variety of reasons, some manifestly superficial and others quite serious. Despite the objections, there are presently strong signs of a widespread reawakening of interest in the devotion and the contributions it can make toward the renewal of the Church.

Some have criticized the devotion for the language used in many of the prayers addressed to the Sacred Heart. Phrases such as prostrate before thy altar seem to many a bit archaic and not in keeping with our modern idiom. Oftentimes, prayers and the lyrics of hymns to the Sacred Heart are considered excessively sweet and sentimental. Artistic representations of the devotion are criticized for being too saccharine and effeminate.

None of these criticisms touch what is essential to the devotion as it has been taught by the Church. They deal with external aspects; and yet we must remember that man derives his knowledge through the senses, and therefore poor art and unsuitable language may form obstacles to a deeper understanding and love of the devotion. We shall discuss some of these problems in the final section of this study, where we deal with questions of renewal and adaptation.

The more serious objections that have been raised against the devotion cannot be brushed aside but must be dealt with clearly and honestly. Critical questioning is a good thing, since it may open both the mind and heart to a deeper reflection and understanding of this priceless gift which our Savior has given to his Church. I have formulated here what I believe to be the four major objections that have been raised to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

1. The devotion to the Sacred Heart rests upon a weak doctrinal base and threatens to overemphasize the humanity of Christ. This position is espoused by theologians such as Karl Barth, who places the devotion on the same level as modern Protestant biographies of the historical Jesus that have abandoned belief in the reality of the Incarnation of the Word. In his book Church Dogmatics, he characterizes both forms as attempts to indicate an approach to Jesus Christ which circumvents His divinity, offering an approach to a revelation which is generally understandable and possible in the form of human judgment and experience. . . . In the Heart of Jesus cult. . . it is blatantly a matter of finding a generally illuminating access to Jesus Christ which evades the divinity of the Word. . . . Therefore both Neo-Protestant faith in the religious hero Jesus and Catholic devotion to the Heart of Jesus are to be rejected as a deification of the creature.²

2. There is no scriptural reference to the devotion. This criticism is frequently heard from our separated brethren and even some Catholics, who demand proof of scriptural authenticity. This is especially important since the Second Vatican Council emphasized Sacred Scripture as the foundation of theology and spirituality.

3. The devotion sprang from a mere private revelation given to a cloistered nun in seventeenth-century France. It is therefore a new devotion and is not sanctioned by Christian tradition.

4. The devotion may have been beneficial for a particular age and cultural outlook, but it is no longer suited to modern times and has become obsolete.

Although some objections are of greater importance than others, all must be answered. If any of these objections should prove true, the validity and perennial value of the devotion would be seriously shaken, if not shattered.

This work shall be divided into four sections in which we hope to achieve four goals. First, we shall examine the dogmatic foundations for the devotion as found in Sacred Scripture and the Church’s teachings concerning Christ as it took shape in the great Christological controversies in the fourth and fifth centuries. This is absolutely essential to demonstrating the perennial validity and value of the devotion.

Second, we shall then proceed to trace the historical development of the devotion that culminated in the great revelation given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. Here we shall glimpse the Holy Spirit at work in the dynamic living tradition of the Church. It will be a thought-provoking study that will reveal the theological richness of the devotion, its evolution, and the multiple forms it has taken throughout two Christian millennia. This investigation will probe into the patristic roots of the devotion, its flowering in the era of medieval mysticism, and developments up to the present day.

Third, we shall then examine the contemporary importance of the devotion in the life of the Church in the light of magisterial teaching. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, there has been a large amount of papal teaching on the devotion. The See of Peter has given the devotion a unique position in the Church. This wealth of papal magisterial teaching will have much to say regarding the timeliness and timeless value of the devotion.

Last, we shall discuss questions of renewal and adaptation of the devotion according to the guidelines of Vatican II.

It was only after a great deal of serious reflection that I decided to write this book, which is an outgrowth of studies begun at the Angelicum in Rome in 1978. I chose to write on the loving Heart of our Lord because I believe the devotion to be of vital importance today. I offer here to the reader, for his prayerful reflection, three quotations from three popes of the twentieth century concerning the importance of devotion to the Sacred Heart in our age:

For is not the sum of all religion and therefore the pattern of more perfect life, contained in that most auspicious sign and in the form of piety that follows from it inasmuch as it more readily leads the minds of men to an intimate knowledge of Christ Our Lord, and more efficaciously moves their hearts to love Him more vehemently and to imitate Him more closely? (Pius XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, May 8, 1928, no. 3)

The honor to be paid to the Sacred Heart is such as to raise it to the rank—so far as external practice is concerned—of the highest expression of Christian piety. . . . It is [no] ordinary form of piety which anyone at his own whim may treat as of little consequence or set aside as inferior to others. (Pius XII, Haurietis Aquas, May 15, 1956, nos. 106, 109)

The cult rendered to the Sacred Heart is the most efficacious means to contribute to that spiritual and moral renewal of the world called for by the Second Vatican Council. (Paul VI, Address to the Thirty-First General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, November 17, 1966)

These three statements are well worth pondering for all those who would sentire cum Ecclesia.

The veneration of our Lord’s Heart, insofar as it honors Christ as the source and substance of our redemption, is no ordinary devotion. It is truly latreutical—a devotion that is rendered to God alone. For the Heart of Christ occupies a central position, as the focal point through which everything passes to the ultimate center in the Father—per Christum ad Patrem. It is a devotion of tremendous theological richness, containing a complete synthesis of faith, or, as Pius XI put it, summa totius religionis. The devotion is at once theocentric and anthropocentric, Trinitarian and Christocentric; it emphasizes love of God and calls eloquently to the fraternal apostolate. It may also lead to that sound Eucharistic piety so greatly desired by the Second Vatican Council. This is especially true since the Eucharist, as Pope Paul VI observed, is the outstanding gift of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I firmly believe that the spirituality fostered by this devotion can best meet the spiritual needs of our age. It is a practical form of spirituality that emphasizes familiaritas cum Christo and, therefore, is marvelously suited to aid priest, religious, and laity alike in their journey of growth in holiness. If practiced in the family, devotion to the Heart of Jesus may greatly help to counter those pagan elements of culture which all too often work their way into the sanctuary of the home.

The devotion should be made available to all. Unfortunately, the widespread ignorance throughout the Church of the devotion’s rich theological foundations has greatly hindered its full appreciation and practice. It is only by returning to these sources as found in Sacred Scripture, tradition, and the teaching of the Church’s Magisterium that we can hope to renew the devotion and thereby allow it to play a central role in the larger effort to renew the Church.

Our Lord, in his apparition to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, communicated to her that the revelation of his Heart was a final effort to enkindle the fire of love in a world in which charity had grown cold. Such is the age in which we live. William Butler Yeats foresaw the crisis of our era in a prophetic poem written at the beginning of the twentieth century:

     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

     The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

     The best lack all conviction, while the worst

     Are full of passionate intensity.³

Coldness and hatred can be melted and overcome only by the fire of love. Certainly, in an age characterized by an increasingly hostile secularization, a spirituality that centers on love and aims at setting the world on fire is precisely what is needed to instaurare omnia in Christo.

     I came to cast fire upon the earth;

     and would that it were already kindled! (Lk 12:49)

Timothy T. O’Donnell, S.T.D.

October 16, 1989

Feast of Saint Margaret Mary

I. Dogmatic Foundations

Redeamus ad cor, ut inveniamus Eum.

     (Let us return to the heart so that we may find Him.)

—Saint Augustine

The Mystery of the Heart in Sacred Scripture: The Old Testament

In our examination of the dogmatic foundations of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is most fitting that we begin by asking the question What is meant by the heart? Dietrich von Hildebrand, the great moral philosopher, saw the importance of this question in his book The Sacred Heart, where he states:

We cannot understand the devotion to the Sacred Heart in its true meaning, or in its specific mission to melt our hearts, unless we first discover the true nature of the heart and the grandeur and glory of true affectivity.

The role that the Church grants to the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the increasing emphasis laid on this aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation, carries with it a great challenge—namely, that we deepen our understanding of the heart as one of the fundamental centers in man’s soul.¹

The word heart is frequently used in everyday parlance in a symbolic sense to describe emotions or attitudes (for example, he’s big-hearted, he has a warm heart, and so on). A symbol is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as that which suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention; especially a visible sign of something invisible. Heart, as a symbol, is often used to designate the person. Karl Rahner describes heart as a primal word that falls into the category of words used to designate the whole man, such as head or hand.

In the original (and not the subsequent, derived or metaphorical) sense, heart is a primal word. It is not susceptible of a proper definition by the joining of better known concepts. Since it has this primal character in so many cultures (Semitic, Graeco-Roman, Western, Mexican, and so on) it is clearly such a word as could be easily employed in the vocabulary of a world religion. It falls into the category of words for the whole man; that is, it signifies a human reality predicable of the whole man as a person of body and spirit.²

The human heart is a natural symbol for what is most intimate, most personal in man. Ladislaus Boros, S.J., in his book God Is with Us also stresses the universality of the physical heart of man as a symbol of his intimate personality or center:

Heart is an image common to all mankind for the central point of a personality, the basis on which flows everything that he is and does. The heart, therefore, signifies both the essence of the person as he actually is, and also the origin of his actions, his fundamental existential attitude. It signifies a person’s disposition: the way he looks at other people, at life, and at all that exists.³

Anyone familiar with the Magisterium of Pope Saint John Paul II could not fail to see the importance that the saint gives to this essential dimension in man which is so fundamental to biblical anthropology.

Aelred Watkin, speaking of the interior dimension of the heart, states:

We have now reached the innermost recesses of the human spirit. Really to know and really to love is the action and response of our innermost personality to the personality of another. . . . With this ultimate knowing and loving we reach the very core of our being. How easily does the word ‘heart’ leap to mind? The heart in the sense of being the heart and core of life; the heart in the sense of that ultimate expression and experience of personality in knowing and loving. And both senses are one.⁴

The heart is the spiritual center of man’s soul, the core of all volitional and emotional and intellectual activity. It therefore represents the whole man. Despite the occasional abuse of this word by sentimentalists and its rejection by rationalists, it continues to possess this rich signification today. Every failure to understand the deeper meaning of the heart is a profound tragedy for the human spirit, for this is how God has chosen to reveal himself in Sacred Scripture: Cor ad cor loquitur.

This symbolic understanding of the heart as the center of man has a firm foundation in Scripture. It is in fact the most important and most frequent word in Old Testament anthropology. Leb and lebab occur over 858 times in the Old Testament.⁵ McKenzie’s Dictionary of the Bible shows that the word heart means even more in Hebrew than it does in English.⁶ In Semitic thought, it signifies the entire interior life of a person. The Old Testament does use the word in its literal sense as a physical organ (Ex 28:29; 1 Sam 25:27); rather, the word is normally used in this figurative sense. Below we have selected several passages that illustrate this usage:

Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? (1 Sam 6:6)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. . . And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart. (Deut 6:5-6)

I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:33)

There are also many instances in which God uses heart as applied to himself:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Gen 6:5-6)

The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. (1 Sam 13:14)

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. (Jer 3:15)

I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jer 32:41)

These texts that refer to the heart of God always deal with his relationship to man and often communicate his will for them. Below is a complete list of explicit Old Testament references to the heart of God as given in The Heart of Christ and the Heart of Man:⁷

     Yahweh to Eli: 1 Samuel 2:35; and to Jehu: 2 Kings 10:30

     Samuel to Saul: 1 Samuel 13:11

     Yahweh to the people through Jeremiah: Jeremiah 3:15

     Idolatry is against the will of Yahweh’s heart: Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5; 32:35

     God’s plan for dealing with men is in his heart

—to punish them: Isaiah 6:34; Jeremiah 23:20; 30:24

—to do them good: Jeremiah 32:41; Psalms 33:11

     David’s prayer: 2 Samuel 7:21

     God’s mercy toward men: Lamentations 3:33

     He moans for them: Jeremiah 48:36

     He vows never to curse and destroy creation again: Genesis 8:21

     His abhorrence of idolatry: Jeremiah 44:21

     His awe-inspiring care for man: Job 7:17

     His attention to man: Job 31:14

     He hides things in his heart: Job 10:13

     His promise to Solomon: his heart and his eyes (see Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8:29) will also dwell with his Name in the Temple (1 Kings 9:3; 2 Chronicles 7:16). This means his all-seeing attention, participation, good will, affection.

     God is characterized by his compassionate love: Hosea 11:8-9

Perhaps a word would be appropriate here to speak about the application of the biblical expression Heart of God to the Heart of Christ. God, of course, is pure spirit and has no heart or body. So, in these passages Scripture is speaking metaphorically to communicate a truth about God. When we speak of our Lord’s Heart, however, this is literally true, for, as Vatican II so beautifully proclaimed, Jesus loved and continues to love us with a human heart.⁸ Accordingly, we may truly apply those biblical references of God’s Heart to the Heart of Jesus. Our Lord’s human thoughts and desires were in perfect harmony with God the Father. God’s will did in fact become incarnate in the Heart of his Son. The sentiments that Sacred Scripture attribute to God in all truth exist in the Heart of Jesus. For this reason, we may appropriately apply to the Heart of our Lord what the Scripture states of the Heart of God. The word heart is also frequently used in the Psalms (113 times), for example:

You have put. . . joy in my heart. (Ps 4)

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Ps 37 [36])

With my whole heart I seek you. . . . I have laid up your word in my heart. (Ps 119 [118])

Here also we may see instances of biblical expressions using the word heart that may be applied to the Heart of Christ. Whatever good is said of the human heart, whether referring to love, honesty, or purity, it may be appropriately applied to the most perfect Heart. The Church has always taught that Christ’s human virtues possessed all the perfection possible in a human nature. His Heart represents them all; accordingly, we say in the Litany of the Sacred Heart: Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues.

Many of these references to heart in the Psalms and elsewhere

Reviews for Heart of the Redeemer

[laudemgloriae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had always kind of had an aversion to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because I connected it so much with feminine looking images of Jesus and flowery sounding prayers. What was so awesome about this book is it shows how deep devotion to the heart of Christ is, deep in the history of the church and how it really is devotion to the humanity and the radical love of Christ, all flowers aside.