SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque,
the Visitation Sister in a convent in France. There is an interesting story
about her. Margaret Mary was having visions of the Sacred Heart between 1673
and 1675; but her community of nuns was also sorely besetting her because some
of them thought her deluded and arrogant. She won herself no friends when after
a vision in 1677 she announced to the convent that Christ had asked her to be
willing to suffer in order to expiate the shortcomings of her Sisters! But
Jesus told her that he would send her a friend who would support her and help
spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. Soon after, a certain Jesuit, Claude de la
Columbiere, arrived as a confessor. She was quite upset when he steadfastly
refused to acknowledge her visions as genuine, though he questioned her
ceaselessly about them. Finally, he devised a way to find out if these were
really visions of God. The next time Jesus appeared she was to ask him a
question and relay the answer immediately to Claude Columbiere. The question
was one that only God would know the answer to: what were Claude Columbiere’s
worst sins? Margaret Mary obeyed. After another vision Claude was impatient to
question her on Jesus’ response. When he asked her if she put the question to
God, she replied she had. “Well”, he prodded, “did he tell you my worst sins?”
She looked at him strangely and replied, “The Sacred Heart said, ‘Tell him I
can’t remember. I always forget.’” In that instant, Claude de la Columbiere
knew that she was indeed seeing and listening to Jesus. He became her ardent
friend, admirer, and a constant source of hope to her as well as the first to
speak publicly on devotion to the Sacred Heart.
MEDICINE AND
FAITH Shortly after Jesus
expired, a soldier pierced his side with a lance, and there came out blood and
water (John 19,34).When the heart is punctured the liquid will flow out with
whatever blood remained in the heart. That is the medical dimension. On the
faith dimension the flowing of the blood and water from Jesus’ side stands for
the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.
Here is where the doctor and the believer can come together. Medicine and faith
need not quarrel. For instance, the doctor and the priest have much in common.
Both are concerned with people, with their well-being. The person should
enjoy not only physical but also mental and spiritual health.
The doctor
and the priest have come across many people who are bewildered and haunted by
the ceaseless problem of pain, suffering and death. Anguish in the heart, fear
of dying, inner emptiness, loneliness - sometimes as the symptoms of
sickness; quite often as the very cause of illness. They are found in secular
society, that is, a society from which God has been cast off as unnecessary and
unhelpful. The famous psychologist, Dr. Carl G. Jung, said about his mentally
ill patients: “Every one of them fell ill because they had lost what the living
religions have given their followers, and only those were healed who regained
their religious outlook.”
While it is
true that love proves itself in the acts of justice and charity, nothing
prevents a person from developing a deeply personal one to one relationship
with Jesus.
One need not
begin this relationship by being anxious to purify oneself by penances and
confession. These could be tools of self-torture if used prematurely.
Penitential acts could more placidly evolve from love. It is better, then,
first to forgive oneself, be kind and gentle to oneself by proper self-care.
Finally, the person seeking a genuine relationship with Jesus must want to
spend more time with him - “wasting time with God” -
not out of self-interest, but simply being happy to remain in his presence.
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