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The Sacred Heart of Jesus
Early in May of this year my daughter and I went with the Mercy Sisters of Burlingame, California, to study prayer and art in France. Our first stop was Paris, and our first day after arriving took us to the Church of the Sacred Heart. It was there that I encountered the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At first it was just another religious statue in the shadows of a famous cathedral, but as I stood and prayerfully gazed upon this truly inspiring work of art, I was surprised by joy.
Grace took hold of me and impressed me with the truly free and full humanity of Christ. At the same time my deep heart was embraced by the mysterious depths of his divinity. As I've simply "been with" this moment after returning, I've had the sense that I briefly experienced in the Church of the Sacred Heart something the apostles knew when they ministered alongside this common yet extraordinary man, a simple carpenter from Nazareth yet someone much more.
In the face of the statue of the Sacred Heart, I saw reflected a deep, merciful and loving compassion for myself and for all humanity. There was great love, the kind of love that flows from a spiritual friend, a soul friend. This deeply loving friend revealed himself as intimately involved in my life, in our lives, amazingly companionable, approachable, while at the same time being more than any human being, his divinity shining through the wholeness, the fullness, the tremendous freedom of his life opened and surrendered to God.
He seemed to me as one to run to as a child would run into the arms of one he or she trusts and loves, eagerly, knowing welcoming arms will embrace him/her. He also seemed full of authority and strength, able to stand with me, with us, in any of our heart aches or shame. My experience of the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminded me of Holy Thursday this year when I attended the foot washing celebration at the Carmelite Monastery here in Reno. As two sisters washed my foot and tenderly dried it, a great love welled up in me that could only have been the presence of this Christ among us, the one who promises that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in their midst.
I like what Pope Pius XII writes about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by 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 love by which we are
related to God and to other [persons].
I must conclude that the Christ who dwells within us by the Holy Spirit through our baptism, is closer daily than our dearest friend or family member. He is one we can be with in any condition of heart we find ourselves, whether full of gratitude or of anger and grief.. His merciful love is flowing out of his Sacred Heart to embrace us, heal us, strengthen us, give us hope every hour of every day. We find a confirming scripture in John 4:13-14:
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
But those who
drink the water I [Jesus] give them will never be thirsty;
no, the water I give
will become fountains within them, springing up to provide
eternal life.
One simple way to draw near to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to find a place to be alone and quiet. Sit with eyes closed and simply receive God's love for as long as you like. Respond with love in return, either silently, verbally, in song, dance or art, or reading a psalm of praise like Psalm 148.
Perhaps you too have had a graced experience of God's love that you've never had the chance to share with someone. This is where spiritual direction comes in. A spiritual director helps another person notice and respond to God's presence in their life. This deepens and enlivens the experience so that the experience can be transforming for a person. Seek out a spiritual director now to share your graced experiences or your longing for God's love.
For more on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, see Heart of the Redeemer by John Cardinal O'Connor which gives the doctrinal roots of the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Nancy Pfaff, M.A., resides in Reno and is a spiritual director and a retreat leader. See her web site for more information: www.sacred-quest.com or call her at 775-560-3030.