SACRED HEART OF JESUS IN THE THEOLOGY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

"And since there is in the Sacred Heart, a symbol and sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another, therefore it is fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart; an act which is nothing else than an offering and binding of oneself to Jesus Christ, seeing that whatever honor, veneration and love is given to this Divine Heart is really and truly given to Christ Himself."

Pope Leo XIII
ANNUM SACRUM
Encyclical on Consecration to the Sacred Heart

SACRED HEART: GOD'S WORD ADDRESSED TO US

Theology is, first of all, God's Word addressed to us. Apply this immediately to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pierced Heart of the Crucified is God speaking a word to us, a word carved out in the Flesh of Jesus' side by the soldier's lance. It is the Divine Love of God laid bare for all to see: "God stepping out of His hiddenness."

When we speak of a theology of the Sacred Heart we mean this first of all: not our discourse about love, but the love of God revealed first to us, the poem of love that issues forth from the Heart of God. This is exactly what St. John, whom the Eastern tradition calls, "The Theologian," says in his First Letter: "In this is Love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4:10).

The difficulty here is that, in order to receive this word inscribed in the flesh of the Word, (cf. Jn 1:14), we have first to stop in front of it, to linger there and to look at the wound of love. "They shall look on Him Whom they have pierced" (Jn 19:37).

To contemplate is to look, not with a passing glance, but with the gaze of one utterly conquered by love. Jeremiah says, "You have seduced me, O Lord, and I was seduced; You are stronger than I, and You have prevailed" (20:7).

The call to be an adorer and an apostle of the Sacred Heart is addressed to every Christian. The apostle is, in essence, the bearer of a word, one sent forth and entrusted with a message.The image that the apostle carries into the world is the one he has learned by looking along with the eyes of adoration at the pierced Heart of the Crucified Christ.

The Word of Crucified Love is hard to pronounce - not with our lips but with our lives. Adoration is the school wherein one learns how to say the Sacred Heart. It is in adoration that the apostle receives the Word of the pierced Heart that, in turn become His Life's message.

Adoration and apostleship of the Sacred Heart together model a spirituality accessible to all Christians: the word received in adoration is communicated in the dynamism of one sent forth with something to say.

SACRED HEART: OUR WORD ADDRESSED TO GOD

Theology is, in the second place, our word addressed to God. Applying this also to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we see that all we could possible want to say to God has already been uttered and is being said eternally through the "mouth" of Christ's glorious pierced Heart in heaven. It is through the Sacred Heart that the Blood of Christ speaks "more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:24).

The Letter to the Hebrews puts it this way: "Christ is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He lives forever to make intercession for them" (7:25).

Christ exercises His priesthood of intercession in the "inner sanctuary behind the veil" (Heb 6:19) by presenting to the Father the glorious wounds in His hands, His feet and His side. The wound in the side of Christ, "great High Priest over the House of God' (Heb 10:21), speaks to the Father on our behalf. It is our word addressed to God.

At the core of devotion to the Sacred Heart is a passing-over into the prayer of Christ to the Father, a long apprenticeship to silence by which we begin to let the Heart of Christ speak in us and for us to the Father.

The mystics of the Sacred Heart, in particular St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde, speak of offering the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Father. This means allowing His Sacred Heart to speak for us, to pray in us, to pray through us, taking comfort in what the Scripture says, "that we have not a high priest who is unable to symphatize without weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb 4:15).

This suggest a simple way of praying, one accessible to all: "Lord Jesus, I come to be silent in Your Presence, trusting that Your Heart will speak for me, knowing that all I could ever want to say, that all I would ever need to say, is spoken eternally to the Father by Your Sacred Heart."

In this way, everything that prayer can or should express - adoration, praise, thanksgiving, supplication and reparation - finds it most perfect expression.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, thus understood, is a manifestation in the Church of the Holy Spirit, "helping us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26). The Sacred Heart is, in the life of the Church, the organ by which "the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the Will of God (Rom 8:27).

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: "We have seen who Jesus is if we see Him at prayer. The Christian confession of faith comes from participating in the prayer of Jesus, from being drawn into His prayer and being priveleged to behold it; it interprets the experience of Jesus' prayer and its interpretation is correct because it springs from a sharing in what is most personal and intimate to Him.

This is the prayer of the Sacred Heart, the prayer that filled the days and nights of Jesus' earthly life, the prayer that suffused His sufferings and ascended from the Cross at the hour of His death, the prayer that with Him descended into the depths of the earth, the prayer that continues uninterrupted in the glory of His risen and ascended life, the prayer that is ceaseless in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Cardinal Ratzinger further wrote that "by entering into Jesus' solitude" and "only by participating in what is most personal to Him, His communication with the Father, can one see what this most personal reality is: only thus can one penetrate to His identity." The Sacred Heart represents and invites us into what is most personal to Jesus: His communication with the Father.

In words that today sound almost prophetic, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that "the person who has beheld Jesus' intimacy with His Father and has come to understand Him from within is called to be a rock of the Church. The Church arises out of participation in the prayer of Jesus (cf. Lk 9:18-20; Mt 16:13-20),"

WORD FROM GOD, WORD TO GOD, WORD FOR THE WORLD

Word of God addressed to us, word addressed to God, word of the Church addressed to the world: herein lies one approach to a theology of the Sacred Heart. The Liturgy remains it primary articulation. Together with the Liturgy of the Hours for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, the 12 Biblical Texts provided for the Mass - a First Reading, Psalm, Second Reading and Gospel become a fundamental resource, an inexhaustible treasure waiting to be mined for every one called to hear, to pray and to offer the healing word that is the pierced Heart.

The Sacred Heart is the Heart of God laid bare for man: Word from God. It is a human Heart lifted high on the Cross: Word to God. It is the Heart of the Church open to all who seek, to all who thirst, to every lost sheep waiting to be found and carried home: Word for the world.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the full and irrevocable message of the Father to us. It is everything we ever could or should need to say to the Father. It is all we have to say to the Father. It is all we have to say to one another and to the world.

Pope Benedict XVI, writing in 1981 as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, challenges us to nothing less: "In the Heart of Jesus, the center of Christianity is set before us. It expresses everything, all that is genuinely new and revolutionary in the new Covenant. This Heart calls to our heart. It invites us to step forth out of the futile attempt of self preservation and, by joining in the task of love, by handing ourselves over to Him and with Him, to discover the fullness of love which alone is eternity and which alone sustains the world."

Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby, O. Cist. is a Cisterian monk of the Abbey of the "Santa Croce in Gerusalemme," which is located in Rome. He serves as Chaplain to the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified at the Monastery of the Glorious Cross, in Connecticut. He has published extensively on many topics related to sacramental theology, and particular on the nature of sung prayer.

SACRO CUORE: INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE OF THE SACRED HEART

BASILICA DEL SACRO CUORE

There is a place in Rome where the first waves of Filipino (OCW) Overseas Contract Worker, and especially Filipinas stationed in that city regularly gather for Mass and socialization every Saturday afternoon. That place is the "Instituto Sacro Cuore" and the Church is the adjoining International Temple of the Sacred Heart. They are located just in front of the entrance to the Termini Station, the major railway station of the capital city of Italy dubbed "Eternal City".

The "SACRO CUORE" (Italian for "Sacred Heart") compound, though no longer the only place where Filipinos and Filipinas gather, is sitill very dear to them because it is so near the train station where they often go to welcome kababayans (countrymen) or to see them off as they leave for other Italian cities where they work.

But "Sacro Cuore" is specially dear to thousands of Filipinos because it is in this Church where they find peace of mind and heart. That is why, from a distance, they instinctively look for the majestic statue of the Sacred Heart that towers above the belfry, and which seems to openly welcome them to His Sacred House of worship and sanctuarial refuge.

Securely they feel, deep in their hearts, that inside God's House they will find not only respite from the hassle of the frantic traffic of Via Marsala (the road along the entrance to the Church and the Institute), but they will also have an opportunity to be reconciled with the Lord through a good Confession or simply have a friendly chat with one of the priests who are assigned to their care.

Many of those who frequent this historical Church including most Romans, however, know very little of the history of the Temple. We sketch these brief historical notes not only for the benefit of the Filipinos who reside in Rome, but also for the information of all those who never went to Italy but may heard about this Church, as well as for the benefit of the millions of worldwide devotees of the Sacred Heart.

HOW THE IDEA OF A TEMPLE IN HONOR OF
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS ORIGINATED

The first idea of having a Temple in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome came from a Barnabite priest: Fr. Antonio Maresca who was the President of the Apostleship of Prayer and Editor of "The Messenger of the Sacred Heart."

Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) not only approved the idea, but also vigorously promoted it personally and even assigned a recently acquired piece of land on the Esquiline Hill as the site of its future construction.

But those were dark days for the Catholic Church in Italy, and especially for the aging and ailing Pontiff who saw himself as a prisoner inside the Vatican since the Italian troops had occupied the whole of the Pontifical State, including the City of Rome. The Holy Pope unfortunately died without being able to see the beginning of the implementation of his plan.

His successor, Pope Leone XIII (1878-1903) expeditiously made the construction of the proposed Temple one of his priorities at the very beginning of his pontificate. Its cornerstone was laid on August 16, 1879. But the work had to be interrupted in 1880 due to the lack of funds.

DON BOSCO COMES INTO THE PICTURE

Having considered several options, the Pope eventually decided to ask Fr. John Giovanni Melchoir Bosco (a priest popularly known in those days as "Don Bosco") to take care of the stalled project.

This humble priest from Piedmont (Northern Italy) had founded a religious congregation for the education and training of young people, especially poor ones, and had acquired the great reputation of being a very successful fundraiser.

This isn't to say that his congregation was awash with money. In fact, right at that time, it was saddled with huge debts incurred in the organization of several missionary expeditions to South America.

But in spite of this seriously critical economic situation of his congregation, Don Bosco accepted the invitation of Pope Leone XIII as a sign of his loyalty to the Vicar of Christ and of his personal devotion to the Sacred Heart. His acceptance of the project, however, had to be ratified by his council. And this is where a seemingly insurmountable difficulty arose.

BLACK PEAS AND WHITE PEAS

When Don Bosco submitted the request of the Pope to his Council, many of the councilors opposed the project simply because they found it to be far above the present financial capabilities of the Congregation. He tried his best to make them realize the honor that such an undertaking would bring to the young Congregation and the spiritual good that such a Church would do.

But when it came to the final deliberation through a secret ballot, the result was: six black peas (negative votes) and only one white pea (positive vote), which obviously, was that of Don Bosco.

The saintly priest smiled as he used to do when faced with great difficulties. He expressed his respect for the result of the votation, although most of those who had voted down his proposal were people he had taken from the streets when they were still very young. He knew they meant well, but he didn't give up right away.

He spoke again to them and with even greater conviction of the need to accept the Pope's proposal. He concluded by telling them, "Let's take another vote. If you give me a yes vote, I can assure you that the Sacred Heart will give us the means to build this Church. He will also enable us to pay all other debts and will likewise give us a beautiful surprise gift; a boarding school to be attached to the Church."

The councilors gasped for breath at the daring words of Don Bosco. Apparently, he was making things more difficult for himself by proposing an additional project. But they knew him all too well. They knew that when Don Bosco spoke that way he was sure of the support of "SOMEONE" who could move mountains. After the young councilors spent some time in silent prayer, they then cast their second vote. The secretary counted seven white peas, and no black ones. The project was approved unanimously!

DREAMING GREATER THINGS THAN THE POPE

That was a moral victory for Don Bosco. He smiled again, this time in gratitude. But that was not all. When they set out to examine in detail the plans prepared by the Pope's architect, the councilors pointed out that the Church would be too small; something not worthy of Rome and the Sacred Heart!

In the end, the very ones who had been most vocal in opposing the project at the beginning, suggested that the Church should be bigger and that the plan for the construction of a boarding school be attached to that of the Church. Don Bosco smiled again with obvious satisfaction.

Shortly after, he traveled back to Rome to present to the Pope not only the formal approval of his request, but also the revised set of plans which included an enlargement of the Church and the construction of an adjoining boarding school.

He concluded his presentation with a confident, inspired smile, asking the Pope to approve and bless the new undertaking. As for the expenses, he could offer just one guarantee: "DIVINE PROVIDENCE" would supply what was needed. At that totally unexpected turn of events, Pope Leo XIII, who had listened to Don Bosco's presentation in utter astonishment, smiled in happy condescension.

DON BOSCO IN ACTION: DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN MOTION

Immediately after, Don Bosco set in full motion, his well-tested "advertising machine". He knocked at the doors of princes and kings; he wrote thousands of circular letters in Italian, French and Spanish, presenting the project, asking for donations and assuring the donors that the Sacred Heart would reward the generosity of the benefactors a hundred fold.

He personally traveled to the main cities of France and Spain, talking to huge congregations in Churches and speaking personally to rich people who could help. Donations continuously kept pouring in to replenish the exhausted funds that were constantly devoured by the ongoing construction.

Not all was smooth sailing. The devil had also set in motion his "demolition campaign" creating obstacles right and left, using the biases of the anticlerical government, the negative insinuations of the Protestant sects that had come to nest on Rome, and which did not leave one stone unturned to oppose or stop the construction of the Temple. The devil used also - believe it or not! - even some Church people and the authors of the previous project to raise difficulties.

Undaunted and persevering, Don Bosco was used to all that. He did not waiver. He kept daring, working indefatigably, and smiling as one who already knew the final outcome.

TEARS OF JOY AND GRATITUDE

And the final outcome was the completion of the construction and the consecration of the "International Temple of the Sacred Heart" in a super record time of seven years! The consecration ceremony took place on 14th April 1887 with the participation of cardinals, bishops, priests and thousands of faithful.

During the solemn Mass, celebrated in the morning by Cardinal Parocchi (the Vicar of the Pope for the diocese of Rome), Don Bosco was in attendance among numerous authorities. During the ceremony those near him saw him burst into tears of consolation more than once. The same situation happened on the 16th of May during the Mass that he celebrated at the Altar of Mary Help of Christians in the newly consecrated Church that had cost him so much sacrifice.

The construction of the International Temple of the Sacred Heart in Rome was Don Bosco's last great undertaking. It took a very heavy toll in his failing health. He passed away in Torino just 8 months later on 31 January 1888. In all truth he could say: "Mission accomplished according to the Divine Will of the Sacred Heart of Jesus."

Mr. Jess P. Balon
THE MESSENGER OF DIVINE LOVE
January-March 2007