Sacred Heart

In 1786, the infamous, Jansenist-inspired Synod of Pistoia, among its many mischiefs, sought to suppress devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Jansenists’ enemy, the Jesuits, suppressed in 1773 and thus at their lowest point in their complicated history, had been – and have remained - the great proponents of devotion to the Sacred Heart, although the devotion itself has ancient roots. Saint Augustine, for example, saw in Christ’s wounded side “not only the source of grace and the sacraments, but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ” [Dilexit Nos (2024), 103].

Jansenism was the religious and theological expression of the 18th-century European Enlightenment’s disdain for popular religion and popular devotions. In his great 20th-century encyclical on the Sacred Heart [Haurietis Aquas (1956), 344], Pope Pius XII described as “false mysticism” such elitist disdain for affective expressions of popular piety. In contrast, the Jesuits became the great proponents of devotion to the Sacred Heart, declaring in 1883, that they accepted and received “with an overflowing spirit of joy and gratitude the most agreeable duty … to practice, promote, and propagate devotion to [Christ’s] divine heart.” his final encyclical, The Jesuit Pope Francis devoted his final encyclical [Dilexit Nos] to “the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.” He wrote: “Our devotion must ascend to the infinite love of the Person of the Son of God, yet we keep in mind that his divine love is inseparable from his human love. The image of his heart of flesh helps us to do precisely this” [DN, 60].

The imagery employed by the text of today’s liturgy invite us to appreciate the tremendous transformation which it is now possible for us to experience because of the simultaneously divine and human love of Christ for us. “Amid the devastation wrought by evil,” Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical on the Sacred Heart, “the heart of Christ desires that we cooperate with him in restoring good ness and beauty to our world” [DN, 182].

Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Saint Paul the Apostle Church, NY, June 27, 2025.