Sacred Heart a Feast of God's Love, Says John Paul II

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 16, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II says the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which the Church celebrates Friday, reminds the faithful of the mystery of God's love for each person.

The Pope delivered that message today to pilgrims at the general audience in St. Peter's Square.

"This feast reminds us of the mystery of the love of God for the people of all times," the Holy Father said, recalling the essence of the message Christ gave when he appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a French religious of the Visitation.

"Dear young people," the Pope exhorted, "I invite you to prepare yourselves, in the school of the Heart of Christ, to face with confidence the commitments that await you in the course of life."

"I thank you, dear sick people, for the special help you offer the Christian people, accepting the fulfillment of the will of Jesus crucified, in fruitful union with his salvific sacrifice," he said.

The Pope then addressed newlyweds, who attended the audience in their wedding clothes, to wish them "the authentic joy that comes from daily faithfulness to the charity of God, of which your conjugal love must be an eloquent testimony."

Addressing compatriots in Polish, who were on hand, John Paul II said: "Entrusting Polish families to the divine Heart, we pray that they will be living sources of love."

The Pope then added: "Let us also pray for holy priests, formed 'according to the Sacred Heart of Christ.'"

John Paul II has established that on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart the Church will observe the World Day for the Sanctification of Priests.

In December 1673, during Christ's first apparition to St. Mary Margaret, he gave her this message, as she later recounted: "My Sacred Heart is so intense in its love for men, and for you in particular, that not being able to contain within it the flames of its ardent charity, they must be transmitted through all means."

June 18, 2004
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment." (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary)

Sixteenth century Calvinism and seventeenth Jansenism preached a distorted Christianity that substituted for God's love and sacrifice of His Son for all men the fearful idea that a whole section of humanity was inexorably damned.

The Church always countered this view with the infinite love of our Savior who died on the cross for all men. The institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart was soon to contribute to the creation among the faithful of a powerful current of devotion which since then has grown steadily stronger. The first Office and Mass of the Sacred Heart were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the feast was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. The celebration of the feast was extended to the general calendar of the Church by Pius IX in 1856.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus
"Beloved brethren, since it had been ordained by a merciful Providence that the Church should be formed from the side of the crucified Christ and that the words of the Scriptures be fulfilled: They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced — a soldier armed with a lance opened the sacred Breast. The Blood mingled with water, which was shed from that pierced side, was the price of our salvation. Flowing from the hidden fount of the Sacred Heart, it gave to the sacraments their power of conferring the life of grace, and to those already living in Christ a draught of the living fount, gushing forth unto life eternal.
"Arise, therefore, O soul friendly to Christ! Cease not your vigil; bring close your lips, that you may draw waters from out the Savior's fountain. Oh, how good and how pleasant it is to dwell in this most Sacred Heart. Your Heart, dearest Jesus, is the great treasure, the precious jewel which we will find in the dug field of Your sacred Body. Who is there who would throw away this jewel? Rather would I throw away all my own jewels, my thoughts and my affections, and cast my cares upon Your Sacred Heart, which will nourish me without fail. I beg of You, sweet Jesus my God, place my prayer among those that You will answer. Draw me wholly into Your Heart. For unto this end Your side was pierced, that an entrance would lie open to us. Unto this end Your Heart was wounded, that detached from worldly tumult, we would be able to dwell in it.

"But above all, Your Heart was wounded so that a visible scar would enable us to see the invisible wound of Your love. For how could the ardor of Your love be better shown than by this, that not only Your Body but even Your very Heart was pierced with a lance? Truly the wounds of the flesh showed forth the wounds of the spirit. Who is there who would not love One so loving? My dearly beloved, let us pray that the Sacred Heart may deign to wound our heart still so hard, still so impenitent, and bind it with the sweet bonds of His love." — St. Bonaventure

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