In one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope John Paul II spoke about the different nuances this devotion brought to the life of the Church. He said that “different is the measure of the knowledge that many disciples, men and women, of the Heart of Christ have acquired of this mystery in the course of the centuries.”
Going back to the New Testament he refers to St. Paul as “one of the leading figures in this field … who, from being a persecutor, was converted and became an Apostle. He, too, speaks to us … with the words of the Letter to the Ephesians. He speaks as a man who has received a great grace, since it was granted to him “to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” (Eph 3:8-9).
The Mystery of the Heart
Those “riches of Christ” and, at the same time, the “eternal plan of salvation” of God are addressed by the Holy Spirit to the “inner man”, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3: 16-17). And when Christ, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, dwells through faith in our human hearts, then we will be able “to comprehend” with our human spirit (that is, precisely with this “heart”) “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…” (Eph 3:18-19).
Then, the Pope quotes St. Bernard: The mystery of the heart opens up through the wounds of the body; the great mystery of piety opens up, the deep feelings of mercy of our God open up (St Bernard, Sermo LXI„ 4: PL 183, 1072).
And Christ speaks to us from his Heart: “Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29).
A Source of Life and Holiness
John Paul II reminds us that at the end of the liturgical cycle of the Church — which begins with the first Sunday of Advent and passes through the time of Christmas, then of Lent and of the Resurrection up to Pentecost, the Sunday of Holy Trinity, and Corpus Christi — the feast of the Divine Heart, of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, presents itself discreetly. The cycle is enclosed definitively in it; in the Heart of the Man-God. From it, too, the whole life of the Church irradiates every year. This Heart is “a source of life and holiness.”
I hope that at this point we have reaped the fruits of this month’s devotion and that we continue to seek refuge in the Sacred Heart of our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of his and our Mother.
God bless you all.
Author: The Contribution of Cornelio Fabro to Fundamental Theology. Reason and Faith, Cambridge Scholars Publishing
