13/06/2007
SACRED HEART OF JESUS
A feast that celebrates love
On 15 June, the Catholic Church celebrates the Sacred Heart of Jesus to honour the Heart of Jesus Christ, which on one hand is seen as the organ symbolizing His humanity and which, as a result of its intimate union with the Divinity, is worthy of adoration, and on the other hand symbolizes the Saviour's love for all people.
This devotion, already practised in early Christianity and the Middle Ages, spread particularly in the 17th century as a result of work by St. Jean Eudes (1601-1680) and above all by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690). The Feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated for the first time in France, probably in 1685.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart is to all effects and purposes a feast of joy, a festival that celebrates the infinite love shown by the Lord to His children, and the sincere sentiment of devotion that, over the centuries, men have demonstrated to God made man. By celebrating love, this feast is also a celebration of life, made up of joy, passion but also pain, that the Lord invites us to entrust to Him. As God-man, Jesus appears to us as a travelling companion, capable of understanding the passions of the heart that He also felt during the course of His mortal life. For this reason He, in his divinity, shows Himself to us with His heart in His hand, ready to accept us and forgive us, remaining at our side and bearing us up with His infinite love.