Behold the Heart, which Has So Loved Us

Each year the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday after the second Sunday after Pentecost. It is a major feast of Our Lord that calls to mind Our Savior’s unconditional, everlasting love. Of course, when we speak of the Sacred Heart, we mean not just a part of Jesus’ body. His Sacred Heart means Jesus’ complete presence, and manifests who He is as Love Incarnate sent by the Father to save us and bring us into the Kingdom.
           
When I was growing up, my mother had a plaque hanging over the inside of our kitchen door depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the words He spoke to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque during a vision in the 17th century—“Behold the Heart which has so loved men!” Jesus held in His Hand His Heart encircled by thorns, with a wound where it was pierced through, and with a cross and flames of love on the top. Each time we left the house by the kitchen door, the plaque reminded us that Our Lord’s love always accompanied us and never failed.
           
“So,” we may ask ourselves, “is the Sacred Heart of Jesus only an image, a depiction, even so beautiful, and nothing more? Or, is the Sacred Heart truly with us?” Well, if we reflect upon how Our Lord is present to us, we will find that His Sacred Heart is with us not only in a figurative way.
           
Two recent Eucharistic miracles in Poland, one in the village of Sokoła in 2008 and one in the town of Legnica in 2013, showed external changes in consecrated Hosts (the Blessed Sacrament). When scientifically analyzed, the red material that had formed in each of the two Hosts was found to be human heart muscle undergoing the stress of an agonizing death. These phenomena remind us of the agony that Jesus’ Heart must have undergone during His death on the Cross. These Eucharistic miracles witness to the truth that in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus is wholly and truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
           
Fr. Robert Spitzer, the renowned Jesuit philosopher, educator, author and scientist, told of his struggle with entering into adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. He noted that as he was before the Blessed Sacrament wondering what to do or how to pray, the reality struck him that this was the Sacred Heart in whose presence he found himself.
           
And so, indeed, this is true. When we come before the Blessed Sacrament, whether exposed in the monstrance, elevated above the altar after the Consecration at Mass, or reserved in a tabernacle, we are in the presence of the Heart that has so loved us and all people. In the Blessed Sacrament Jesus gives Himself to us as true God and true Man, Himself entirely present, including His Sacred Heart. How blessed are we in such a Savior who is always present to us in order to unite us to Himself and to send us forth to bring many souls to Himself!

Let us pray every day the following prayer, often prayed at the end of the Divine Praises at Benediction, that proclaims what the Church teaches and believes – the Heart of Jesus is always with us in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.  Let us praise, adore and love Him for his Heart is always open to us and pours out His mercy and love on us and on the whole world.

May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the Tabernacles of the world, even until the end of time. Amen.

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh