Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Its Historical Antecedents and Devotion

The celebration of the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a source of profound grace to all of us. It is a feast that has its biblical, historical, and papal foundations and backgrounds.

1. Biblical Sources- The regard for feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus began with the early Christians who considered God as Love. The Johannine community had faith in God as love (Deus Caritas Est) which is found evidently in 1 John 4:8. The heart became the image of love. This love which we reflect brings us back to the mystery of God’s love manifested through Christ on the Cross. Jesus suffered five wounds on the Cross.


a. Wound on the Head- the crown of thorns pierced into the head of Christ. We find this in Matthew 27:28-30. It reads: “They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.”

b. Wound on his back- the scourging of Jesus had wounded his back. The stripes at his back were marks of the flogging which is stated in Deut. 25:3 which stipulated that a criminal will not receive more than 40 lashes. St. Paul experienced it when he said: “five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.” Although the difference is that Jesus was flogged by the Romans and not the Jews.  In John 19:1, we read: “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.”


c. Wound on his hands and feet- the wounds of the nails that pierced through his hands on the cross. In Mark 15:24 we read: “And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.”


d. Wound on his side- When the soldier thrusted a lance in his side, immediately blood and water flowed. We read this from John 19:33-34: “But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”


e. Wound in his heart- the pains Jesus experienced was not only the physical ones but also the pain in his heart that he had to cry to the Father in the depths of his humanity. On the Cross, Jesus was truly God and truly Man but he felt the pain in His heart when he said: “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

 

2. Historical Background- The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its historical antecedents when the devotion of the Five Wounds of Jesus on the Cross was celebrated and promoted. In the 11th century, many Christians began to reflect and meditate on the wounds of Christ on the Cross. It was a way to value and focus on the passion of Christ as well as to appreciate the great love of God to us. One of the earlier saints who had personal and divine revelations about the Sacred Heart of Jesus was St. Gertrude. She was a Benedictine nun and a mystic. She was born on January 6, 1256. She was known to have practiced “nuptial mysticism” which was a form of spirituality that considered herself as the bride of Christ. As a devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Gertrude believed that the redemptive aspect of the heart of Jesus, through the image of his wounded side, is a grace of love. She had a mystical vision that on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, she was leaning her head near the wounded side of Christ and she could hear the beating of his heart.

 

The devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was practiced among the Christians of the middle century then, and in 1670, St. John Eudes celebrated the first feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was the founder of Order of our Lady of Charity in 1641 and he founded also the Congregation of Jesus and Mary in 1643. All its members were called Eudists. He popularized the Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus and the Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Mary. It was Pope Pius XI who declared him as the Father of the Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

 

In 1873, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had visions and revelations from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She entered the Order of the Visitation in France at the age of 24 and lived a life of chastity after she had a vision of the body of Christ scourged and bloody. At an early age, she had a tremendous love towards the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because of that love for her, she had a vision of Christ and had private revelations about his Sacred Heart. On December 27, 1673 on the Feast day of St. John the Evangelist, she said that Jesus permitted her to rest near the wound on his side just exactly what happened to St. Gertrude. She said that Jesus wanted that all Catholics should receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month and adore the Sacred Heart through the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque promoted the Devotion of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as Jesus revealed the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart to her. In 1675, the Sacred Heart of Jesus revealed to her that a annual feast has to be celebrated by the Church and that feast is assigned on the Friday after the celebration of Corpus Christi.

 

3. Papal Proclamations- The support, encouragement and the promotion of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Popes had made the love of Christ known and felt in the world.

 

a) Pope Clement XIII approved and encouraged the faithful in 1765 that marked the 75th year after the death of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Pope granted the mass in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Poland and an office of prayers in honor of it. At the request of King Augustus III, the Pope approved the Archconfraternity of the Sacred Heart in Rome on Jan. 26, 1765.

 

b) Pope Pius VI in 1794 had declared that a plenary indulgence is granted to those who have special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Pope promotes the honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as our worship of Jesus. He promoted the devotion to counter the heresies and the calumnies of the Jansenists. Jansenism was a movement within Catholicism pioneered by Cornelius Otto Jansen that attempted to reconcile divine grace and human freedom. It denies the infallibility of the pope and the authority of the church. Jansen presented and defended the doctrine of St. Augustine regarding salvation and grace. In his writings entitled Augustinus, Jansen denies that man’s free will is incapable of doing good because it is already naturally weak and inclined to sin; all man’s actions are sinful because of concupiscence or all man’s actions are good because of the grace from heaven. Subtly, it is a denial of supernatural order and it promotes predestination.

 

c) Pope Pius IX in 1856 made the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus celebrated by the whole Catholic Church on the Friday after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Yet the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws its roots even from the Fathers of the Church and we recall the Origen, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Hippolytus of Rome, Saint Irenaeus, Saint Justin Martyr, and Saint Cyprian. The Benedictines and the Cistercians were also having devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the 11th century.

 

d) Pope Pius XI issued an Encyclical letter on May 8, 1928 entitled Miserentissimus Redemptor to validate the revelations and the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. With such validation, the Encyclical promotes the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Pope said: “For if the first and foremost thing in Consecration is this, that the creature's love should be given in return for the love of the Creator, another thing follows from this at once, namely that to the same uncreated Love, if so be it has been neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offense, some sort of compensation must be rendered for the injury, and this debt is commonly called by the name of reparation (Miserentissimus Redemptor no.6).

 

e) Pope Leo XIII issued an Encyclical letter entitle Annum Sacrum on May 25, 1899 to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Encyclical letter reminds the Church consecrate the entire world including the non-Christians to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the outset of a new millennium. Pope Leo placed the entire humanity under the power of Christ especially to His love. He said: “This world-wide and solemn testimony of allegiance and piety is especially appropriate to Jesus Christ, who is the Head and Supreme Lord of the race. His empire extends not only over Catholic nations and those who, having been duly washed in the waters of holy baptism, belong of right to the Church, although erroneous opinions keep them astray, or dissent from her teaching cuts them off from her care; it comprises also all those who are deprived of the Christian faith, so that the whole human race is most truly under the power of Jesus Christ” (Annum Sacrum 3). As sinners and facing a new millennium, all people have to be consecrated and recognize the infinite love of Christ. “And since there is in the Sacred Heart a symbol and a sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another, therefore is it fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart-an act which is nothing else than an offering and a binding of oneself to Jesus Christ, seeing that whatever honor, veneration and love is given to this divine Heart is really and truly given to Christ Himself (Annum Sacrum 8).

 

f) Pope Pius XII issued an Encyclical letter entitled Haurietis Aquas on May 15, 1956 to celebrate the 100th year of the declaration of the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to be celebrated in the entire Catholic Church. The Encyclical highlights the importance of the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. First, it is the symbol of God’s unconditional love for all of humanity. The Pope said: “For these reasons, the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since “in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. “It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused. And finally - and this in a more natural and direct way - it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body. Second, the heart is not just a symbol but it is related to Christ who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. It is the heart “lives and beats and is united inseparably with the Person of the divine Word and, in Him and through Him, with the divine Will” (Haurietis Aquas 85). The heart that we honor is the heart of a Divine Person. Pius XII said: “It is therefore essential, at this point, in a doctrine of such importance and requiring such prudence that each one constantly hold that the truth of the natural symbol by which the physical Heart of Jesus is related to the Person of the Word, entirely depends upon the fundamental truth of the hypostatic union” (Harurietis Aquas 105).

 

g) John XXIII issued a letter on June 30, 1960 regarding the promoting the devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ. He said that there is an inseparable yet intrinsic connection between the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ. Both devotions point directly to the God’s divine mercy and to the disposition of holiness of life among the faithful. He said: “With that in mind, we judge it most timely to call our beloved children’s attention to the unbreakable bond which must exist between the devotions to the Most Holy Name and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus — already so widespread among Christians — and devotion to the incarnate Word’s Most Precious Blood, “shed for many, to the remission of sins.” The Pope further said that the three important devotions should be promoted in the Church today since these three devotions point to same person, it provides the same disposition towards holiness of life, and these devotions is the work of the Holy Spirit. These devotions find their ancient roots in Church history namely: the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, the devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Pope said: “The Church’s wonderful advances in liturgical piety match the progress of faith itself in penetrating divine truth. Within this development it is most heart-warming to observe how often in recent centuries this Holy See has openly ap proved and furthered the three devotions just mentioned. From the Middle Ages, it is true, many pious persons practiced these devotions, which then spread to various dioceses and religious orders and congregations. Nevertheless, it remained for the Chair of Peter to pronounce them orthodox and approve them for the Church as a whole.”