Sacred Heart

In a reflection for the month of the Sacred Heart, Brother René Stockman considers the writings of Saint Claude La Colombière, the reality of suffering, and the healing that comes through trust in God’s mercy “My God, I am so firmly convinced that You watch over those who have placed their hope in You, and that one will lack nothing when one expects everything from You, that I have resolved to live without worry from now on and to entrust to You everything that troubles me: ‘Lord, You let me dwell in safety. I need not be afraid; I can sleep in peace’ (Psalm 4:9). People may take everything from me: my possessions, my honour; illness may sap my strength so that I can no longer even serve You; I may even lose Your grace through my sins: but never shall I lose the hope that I shall keep until the last day of my life. Nothing and no one will be able to take this hope from me”. These words are those of Saint Claude La Colombière, a 17th-century Jesuit who was the spiritual director of Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial. The latter is perhaps better known to us because of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which gained a special place within the Church through her. Saint Claude La Colombière is less known. I first discovered him during a chance visit to Paray-le-Monial and was struck by the words he wrote about his trust in God’s mercy. For that faith in God’s mercy is the very heart of the Sacred Heart devotion to which we are especially invited during the month of June. God’s mercy is the absolute expression of his love for each and every one of us and is therefore truly unconditional. If we become truly convinced of this, then we will be able to identify with the words of Claude de Colombière. He takes as his starting point the line from Psalm 4: “Lord, you let me dwell in safety. I need not be afraid; I can sleep in peace.” We all know moments when we are anything but sleeping peacefully, because all sorts of problems disturb our sleep. These may be the conflicts we had the previous day with someone close to our hearts, or a disappointment suffered at the hands of a person from whom we certainly did not expect it. As Claude points out, our honour can be wounded and we can be portrayed in a completely false light. We may be falsely accused, causing everything we have built up as good to vanish into thin air, as it were, and be overshadowed by negativity. We may fall victim to gossip that drags our name through the mud, and we know the proportions this can take today when it finds its way onto the internet. And yes, illness too can completely derail our plans and push us into an unwanted passivity, leaving us lacking even the strength to pray. It is a list that could be added to. But the intention here is not to list everything that can disturb our sleep and our inner peace, tranquillity and serenity. The question is how we deal with all this, and whether, if we wish to maintain the illusion of having the strength to process it all ourselves, we will actually succeed in doing so. Claude de Colombière does not run away from the problems that befall him or the disappointments he faces; he faces them squarely. But he knows how to hand them over and entrust them to God’s mercy. It is thanks to his growing realisation that he is truly loved by God that he becomes convinced that nothing is too much to entrust to God’s mercy. God’s loving and merciful heart is so much greater than his own heart, troubled by the many worries that surround and afflict him, that it has the power to fully compensate for and heal the loss of his inner peace, and to bestow upon him, as it were, a new heart. The unconditional love and mercy that God radiates towards him, and towards us, causes an equally unconditional hope to grow within him and within us, a hope that no one and nothing can take away from us. Here we need no artificial means to regain our peace of mind, but will be healed from within and our wounds will be completely healed, so that not even a painful scar will remain. At a time when everything is expected of medical technology, including the healing of psychological and existential ailments and wounds, the therapy offered to us here may sound rather unscientific. We have become accustomed to a different language. There is a grain of truth in the observation that the confessional has been replaced by the psychologist’s chair and penance for the prescription for a psychotropic drug. In saying this, we do not detract from the merits of the ever-advancing field of medicine, through which so many people can be helped more effectively; yet we do ask ourselves whether, by losing faith in God’s mercy, we have not closed off a path to deeper healing and restoration. It is from this same conviction that we can look up to the image of Jesus, who showed Saint Faustina his open heart, from which a stream of blood and water flowed, and in which Jesus inspired Sister Faustina to utter the words: “Jesus, I trust in You.” It is through the blood and water flowing to us from the opened heart of Jesus that we can be purified and healed of everything that troubles us. It is this grace that we may receive in the sacrament of Confession, from which many have completely turned away through ignorance or growing indifference. When we ignore sin, the conviction that we do not need forgiveness grows. It is enough to forgive ourselves, or, from a position of moral relativism, to decide for ourselves what is good and bad, so that ultimately we regard everything we do as good. But in the sacrament of reconciliation we are able to experience that healing power of God’s mercy, and moral relativism will slip away. As Claude de Colombière points out, we are called to entrust everything that weighs us down to God’s mercy and never lose hope again. That is why devotion to the Sacred Heart is not merely a relic of a distant past, but an invitation to open ourselves directly to God’s unconditional love and mercy and to allow Him to heal us from within. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Gathering in Orlando, the Catholic bishops of the United States placed both the Church and the nation under the protection of the Sacred Heart The Catholic bishops of the United States have consecrated the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, marking the 250th anniversary year of American independence. The act of consecration took place on 11 June during the spring plenary assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Orlando, Florida. Bishops from across the country took part in the public act of prayer and devotion that organisers said was intended to place both the Church and the nation under the protection and mercy of Christ. Preaching at the Mass, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore said the occasion was not primarily a celebration of the nation’s approaching semiquincentennial but an act of faith. “We gather, not first to celebrate ourselves, but to consecrate. To entrust. To place the Church in the United States, and indeed the whole nation, into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Lori said. He told the congregation that the consecration acknowledged that history is ultimately shaped by God’s providence rather than human achievement alone. “We consecrate our nation, not because it is perfect, but because it is beloved by God,” he said. “We entrust to the Heart of Christ our achievements and failures, our hopes and anxieties, our present challenges and our future aspirations.” The archbishop said the Church approached the moment with gratitude for the blessings received throughout American history while recognising the need for repentance and renewal. “We cannot come to the Heart of Christ while pretending we have no need of His mercy,” he said. Drawing on the Gospel reading in which Christ tells His disciples to remain in His love, Archbishop Lori described the Sacred Heart as “the revelation of God’s love made flesh” and said devotion to it offered an antidote to political and ideological division. “The Sacred Heart does not divide; it reconciles. It does not harden hearts; it transforms them. It does not simply invite us to receive love; it sends us forth to share it,” he said. “The future belongs to God,” Archbishop Lori said. “And so we place into His Heart not only ourselves but generations yet unborn, and all those who will inherit the Church and the nation we leave behind.” The consecration itself was led by Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the bishops’ conference. In the prayer, the bishops entrusted the nation to the Sacred Heart and asked for healing, justice, reconciliation and peace. The prayer gave thanks for the blessings received by the United States, sought forgiveness for sins committed against God and human dignity, and asked that the Church become an ever clearer sign of Christ’s presence in society. Repeated invocations of “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us” were offered throughout the ceremony. The act of consecration followed a period of reflection by several bishops on the significance of devotion to the Sacred Heart in contemporary society. Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland argued that devotion to the Sacred Heart offered an answer to what he described as the spiritual anxieties of modern life, including loneliness, insecurity and the search for identity. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus is not merely a symbol,” Archbishop Sample said. “It is the living Heart of the Risen Lord, still beating with love for humanity.” Reflecting on Christ’s sacrificial love, Archbishop Sample said believers could find freedom from the need to base their worth on success or failure. “When we know that we are loved by Christ, we no longer need to build our identity on achievements or failures,” he said. Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville focused on the relationship between devotion to the Sacred Heart and ecclesial unity. He urged bishops to model genuine communion within the Church and resist reducing people to ideological categories. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus never encounters us as categories,” Archbishop Fabre said. “Jesus Christ does not love abstractions. He loves people.” He argued that Christian communion is founded not upon personal preference or political affinity but upon participation in the life of Christ. Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St Paul and Minneapolis spoke about the transforming power of Christ’s love upon wounded hearts. Referring to the motto of St John Henry Newman, Cor ad cor loquitur , or “heart speaks to heart”, he encouraged deeper prayer and a more intimate relationship with Christ. “Drawing near to the heart of Jesus, entering into that intimate dialogue with Jesus, changes everything,” Archbishop Hebda said. Before the Mass, the bishops participated in Eucharistic adoration and venerated relics associated with St Margaret Mary Alacoque, the seventeenth-century French Visitation nun whose visions helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout the Catholic world. The consecration took place against the backdrop of preparations for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 and formed part of the programme of commemorations taking place across the United States. Devotion to the Sacred Heart occupies a prominent place in Catholic spirituality. Rooted in the Gospel accounts of Christ’s love and sacrifice, it gained renewed prominence through the revelations received by St Margaret Mary between 1673 and 1675. The devotion was subsequently promoted by numerous popes and religious orders and became one of the most widespread expressions of Catholic piety. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the entire human race to the Sacred Heart, describing the act as one of the most important of his pontificate.