June is the month in which we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. It is an invitation to drink deeply of the mystery of Divine love made accessible to us through the Son, by his taking on our very humanity. It is a celebration of Divine love. Closely connected liturgically with the Solemnity of the most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is meant to lead us deeper into an appreciation of the loving designs of Providence for each one of us.
Allegory of the Holy Eucharist | Miguel Cabrera 1750
Blessed Abbott Columba Marmion, OSB, writes on the love of the “Heart of the Man-God” Jesus Christ:
His Love an inexhaustible “treasure”
And, indeed, we shall never exhaust the treasure of tenderness, of loveableness, of kindness and charity, of which the Heart of the Man-God is the burning furnace. We have only to open the Gospel and, on each page, we shall see shine out the goodness, the mercy, the condescension of Jesus towards men. I have tried, in pointing out some aspects of the public life of Christ, to show you how deeply human and infinitely delicate is this love.
Christ’s love is founded on the Incarnation
This love of Christ is not a chimera, it is very real, for it is founded upon the reality of the Incarnation itself. The Blessed Virgin, St. John, Magdalen, Lazarus knew this well. It was not only a love of the will, but also a heartfelt love. When Christ Jesus said: “I have compassion on the multitude,” He really felt the fibres of His human Heart moved by pity; when He saw Martha and Mary weeping for the loss of their brother, He wept with them; truly human tears were wrung from His Heart. Therefore the Jews who witnessed this sight said to one another: “Behold how He loved him. ”
The most loving and most loveable
Christ Jesus does not change. He was yesterday, He is today: — His Heart remains the most loving and most loveable that could be met with. St. Paul tells us explicitly that we ought to have full confidence in Jesus because He is a compassionate High Priest Who knows our sufferings, our miseries, our infirmities, having Himself espoused our weaknesses— saving sin. Doubtless, Christ Jesus can no longer suffer: “death shall no longer have dominion over him”; but He remains the One Who was moved by compassion, Who suffered and redeemed men through love: He “love me and gave himself up for me.”
Christ’s Heart draws its human kindness from the Divine Ocean
Whence came this human love of Jesus, this created love? From the Uncreated and Divine Love, from the love of the Eternal Word to which the human nature is indissolubly united. In Christ, although there are two perfect and distinct natures, keeping their specific energies and their proper operations, there is only one Divine Person. As I have said, the created love of Jesus is only a revelation of His uncreated love. Everything that the created love accomplishes is only in union with the uncreated love, and on account of it; Christ’s Heart draws its human kindness from the Divine Ocean.
Upon Calvary, we see Him die a man like unto ourselves, One Who has been a prey to anguish, Who has suffered, Who has been crushed beneath the weight of torments, heavier than any man ever bore ; we understand the love that this Man shows us. But this love which, by its excess, surpasses our knowledge, is the concrete and tangible expression of the Divine love. The Heart of Jesus pierced upon the Cross reveals to us Christ’s human love; but beneath the veil of the humanity of Jesus is shown the ineffable and incomprehensible love of the Word.[i]
[i] Marmiom, OSB, Dom Columba. “Christ in His Mysteries.” pp. 370-71. Internet Archive. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://archive.org/details/christ-in-his-mysteries-abbot-marmion_202109/.
Posted June 24, 2022
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
