The Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Definition

DEVOTION TO “THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS” is, of course, predominantly a Roman Catholic practice. You see the term frequently used as a name for Catholic schools, hospitals, and the like. But you’ll also find some Episcopalians, especially high-church Episcopalians, and even some Lutherans embracing the devotion. So what’s the deal? Where did the devotion originate? And what is it all about?

in 1353, Pope Innocent VI first instituted a mass honoring the mystery of the “Sacred Heart.” But the devotion we know today derives from a French nun, a certain Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who said she learned it from Our Lord Himself in the late 1670s during a series of apparitions.

In Christian art, the Sacred Heart is depicted topped with with a flame. Often, there is also a crown of thorns and a bleeding wound caused by a thrust from a lance. Many non-Catholics look at the artistic depictions and find them tacky, if not disturbing.

So, what makes the devotion compelling for so many Christians? The Sacred Heart of Jesus is that place where the passions of humanity and the will of Almighty God contended, and the will of God prevailed, accomplishing for us what we could never accomplish for ourselves. Passions are unpredictable, they rise and fall like the tides and often lead us to dark places. When they dominate us, they can upend our lives. It is our moral will that helps keep our passions in check. God’s divine will is relentlessly steadfast if not always understood. When, in marriage, we promise “to love and to cherish til death do us part” it doesn’t mean we will be “in love” for a lifetime. We can’t make that promise; romantic love will sometimes vanish as unexpectedly as it arrives. The marriage vow refers instead to a tenacious love, a commitment to practice the discipline of love whether we feel like it or not—mirroring the way Our Lord loves us. Accordingly, it serves a profoundly redemptive purpose. God’s love for all of us is persistent and patient. No matter how hard we try to run and hide from God, He never stops seeking us out to claim what is His; He is never finished with us until we draw that final breath. The Sacred Heart is a symbol of that profound, resolute love God has for all the creatures He has created in His own image. And so it remains an object of universal devotion.