Take Heart: The Astonishing Love of the Sacred Heart

Our language is filled with ways of talking about the 'heart': we "learn something by heart," we suffer "heartbreak," we have "our heart in the right place." Clearly we are not literally talking about the organ that pumps blood throughout our body: we are using 'heart' in a symbolic sense. For example, when we "take something to heart," we are appreciating its significance deep within ourselves. When we "get to the heart of the matter," we arrive at the core of our concern. When we say that someone has "a heart of gold," we mean that they are truly a charitable person. Across all of these examples, our 'heart' seems to symbolize our true self, our inner person, the core of our existence, our affection, and our action. As our late holy father, Pope Francis, wrote in his final encyclical, Dilexit nos, "it could be said, then, that I am my heart, for my heart is what sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people" (14).

It is amazing how much of this symbolism is drawn from Sacred Scripture! In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises His people: "I will give you a new heart." For St. Paul, this promise has reached completion in the gifting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: "God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). These passages indicate that God desires us to undergo a transformation in our innermost, a re-creation of our very selves: and He does this by "placing His spirit within us" (Ezekiel 36:27), not on the surfaces, not for the sake of a "whitewashed" exterior (see Mt 23:27), but in our innermost core.

There is something startling, though, about the revelation of God in Sacred Scripture. The whole inspired text, from the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation, is ultimately a revelation of God's own heart. Above all else, God wishes for us not merely to do or think this or that - rather, what God wants most is that we know what is innermost in Him, which is nothing other than love ("God is love" [1 John 4:8]). God's heart of love for Israel and for all of humanity is precisely an expression of His innermost self - it is the love of the Trinity shared with humanity, an 'open heart' for all of us. It is not simply that He wishes to give us new hearts: He wants us to have these new, soft hearts that are not hardened to Him. He wants us to be transformed so that our hearts may receive His love, so that they might be able to express love in return.

But this is not the whole story. If God wishes to reveal His heart, his innermost, how might He do it? We can think of many possibilities - but the way He ultimately did it shattered even the most radical expectations. As Pope Francis wrote, "the eternal Son of God, in His utter transcendence, chose to love each of us with a human heart" (60). What an astonishing gift that truly defies our comprehension: now, "entering into the heart of Christ, we feel loved by a human heart filled with affections and emotions like our own.... It is precisely in His human love, and not apart from it, that we encounter His divine love" (67). The triune God knew that this is the best way to reveal Himself to us: not by a means foreign, but familiar; not through a hidden language, but an obvious one - the language of the human heart.

Jesus' Sacred Heart burns with this love, revealing to all the fiery love of the triune God. But as is clear from the images of the Sacred Heart, this is not only a heart inflamed: it is also a heart that is pierced. This wound is a reminder of how far that divine love was willing to go: as Pope Pius XII wrote, this wounded heart "remains through the course of the ages a striking image of that spontaneous charity by which God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption of men and by which Christ expressed such passionate love for us that He offered Himself as a bleeding victim on Calvary for our sake" (Haurietis Aquas, 78).

Now we see who God is, for "they shall look on him whom they have pierced" (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10): He is a furnace of love that burns for ultimate communion with each of us,. And it is this heart that we receive anew through the Holy Spirit. Our love overflows from this new heart: as Pope Francis wrote, "in contemplating the pierced heart of the Lord, who 'took our infirmities and bore our diseases' (Mt 8:17), we too are inspired to be more attentive to the sufferings and needs of others, and confirmed in our efforts to share in his work of liberation as instruments for the spread of his love" (171).

We invite you to join us in-person and via Zoom as we hold a one-day conference to celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this Friday, June 27th, 2025. This date marks the close of the Jubilee for the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial, France. Speakers will address Jesus' Sacred Heart in accessible talks meant to inform and inspire. On Saturday, June 28th, 2025, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we invite you to join us in-person for a half-day retreat centered upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus, led by Prof. Lisa Lickona.