A Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
The Inner Life of the Soul contains entries for each Sunday as celebrated in the traditional calendar of the Church. Of note at this time of year have been the repeated entries focused on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The actual feast has passed, but the reality of the Sacred Heart never passes.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart didn't begin with St. Margaret Mary in the 17th century. She simply became its greatest advocate during her life. Through her, the devotion re-gained strength. It was said that many hearts grew cold because of the influence of Jansenism. The Jansenist movement focused on our sinfulness, and unworthiness. In its extreme forms, it was hard to justify receiving Holy Communion: You could never think yourself worthy enough. It's worth learning about this movement which had wide influence, especially in Germany, France, and Ireland. Its influence was transferred to the U.S. during the Irish immigration. It had taken root in some of the Irish clergy who came to dominate the Catholic Church in America.
I've had some personal experience with Jansenism. Looking back on my early life and education, I've been able to identify some Jansenist "color" that rubbed off from my Catholic school days, taught by mostly Irish-American nuns.
The Jesuits were perhaps the greatest proponents of devotion to the Sacred Heart until the tawdry decade of the 1960s took the air out of much of our Catholic tradition. The Jesuits, sadly, deflated as well.
But that doesn't mean we can't re-ignite the fire of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Resources like The Inner Life of the Soul, published in the early years of the 20th century, can help us here. In its entry for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, we find these words:
"Is not our Blessed Lord craving our human sympathy, asking our human affection, He Who is God, and needs us not, and is all-sufficient to Himself? 'What are these wounds in Thy hands?' we ask Him; and the sorrowful answer is: 'Those wherewith I was wounded in the house of my friends.' In the revelations to Blessed Margaret Mary, we become aware that the Sacred Heart desires love, sympathy, companionship; and we are daily praying: 'Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.'"
Isn't it stunning that Our Lord craves our love?; that He would reveal His Sacred Heart, wounded, bleeding, to demonstrate that love to us?
Are we moved by the Sacred Heart? Or has it been somehow consigned to the closet that holds what many contemporary Catholics consider out-dated and old-fashioned? Are we repelled by the gory details of Our Lord's suffering that the Sacred Heart depicts? Are we moderns somehow too "sophisticated" to be moved as were generations of Catholics before us, causing us to be "turned off" by the emotional appeal that comes with the true-to-life depictions of the Sacred Heart.
If so, it's time to lose it. Jesus wants our love, and we need His. It's only through our love of Our Lord that our love for others gains strength and endures. And there's no better depiction or devotion than the Sacred Heart to fire up the love we need and the love that others need from us: Spouses, children, grandparents, relatives, friends, neighbors.
The Sacred Heart demonstrates the love that Jesus craves from us. The world craves the love that comes from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart didn't begin with St. Margaret Mary in the 17th century. She simply became its greatest advocate during her life. Through her, the devotion re-gained strength. It was said that many hearts grew cold because of the influence of Jansenism. The Jansenist movement focused on our sinfulness, and unworthiness. In its extreme forms, it was hard to justify receiving Holy Communion: You could never think yourself worthy enough. It's worth learning about this movement which had wide influence, especially in Germany, France, and Ireland. Its influence was transferred to the U.S. during the Irish immigration. It had taken root in some of the Irish clergy who came to dominate the Catholic Church in America.
I've had some personal experience with Jansenism. Looking back on my early life and education, I've been able to identify some Jansenist "color" that rubbed off from my Catholic school days, taught by mostly Irish-American nuns.
The Jesuits were perhaps the greatest proponents of devotion to the Sacred Heart until the tawdry decade of the 1960s took the air out of much of our Catholic tradition. The Jesuits, sadly, deflated as well.
But that doesn't mean we can't re-ignite the fire of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Resources like The Inner Life of the Soul, published in the early years of the 20th century, can help us here. In its entry for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, we find these words:
"Is not our Blessed Lord craving our human sympathy, asking our human affection, He Who is God, and needs us not, and is all-sufficient to Himself? 'What are these wounds in Thy hands?' we ask Him; and the sorrowful answer is: 'Those wherewith I was wounded in the house of my friends.' In the revelations to Blessed Margaret Mary, we become aware that the Sacred Heart desires love, sympathy, companionship; and we are daily praying: 'Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.'"
Isn't it stunning that Our Lord craves our love?; that He would reveal His Sacred Heart, wounded, bleeding, to demonstrate that love to us?
Are we moved by the Sacred Heart? Or has it been somehow consigned to the closet that holds what many contemporary Catholics consider out-dated and old-fashioned? Are we repelled by the gory details of Our Lord's suffering that the Sacred Heart depicts? Are we moderns somehow too "sophisticated" to be moved as were generations of Catholics before us, causing us to be "turned off" by the emotional appeal that comes with the true-to-life depictions of the Sacred Heart.
If so, it's time to lose it. Jesus wants our love, and we need His. It's only through our love of Our Lord that our love for others gains strength and endures. And there's no better depiction or devotion than the Sacred Heart to fire up the love we need and the love that others need from us: Spouses, children, grandparents, relatives, friends, neighbors.
The Sacred Heart demonstrates the love that Jesus craves from us. The world craves the love that comes from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Happy Sunday!
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