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Title: |
Haurietis Aquas
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Descr.: |
On Devotion To The Sacred Heart
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Pope: |
Pope Pius XII
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Date: |
May 15, 1956
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Venerable
Brethren: Health and Apostolic Benediction.
1.
"You shall draw waters with joy out of the Savior's
fountain."(1) These words by which the prophet Isaias, using
highly significant imagery, foretold the manifold and abundant
gifts of God which the Christian era was to bring forth, come
naturally to Our mind when We reflect on the centenary of that
year when Our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, gladly
yielding to the prayers from the whole Catholic world, ordered the
celebration of the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the
Universal Church.
2.
It is altogether impossible to enumerate the heavenly gifts which
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has poured out on the souls
of the faithful, purifying them, offering them heavenly strength,
rousing them to the attainment of all virtues. Therefore,
recalling those wise words of the Apostle St. James, "Every
best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of Lights,"(2) We are perfectly justified in
seeing in this same devotion, which flourishes with increasing
fervor throughout the world, a gift without price which our divine
Savior the Incarnate Word, as the one Mediator of grace and truth
between the heavenly Father and the human race imparted to the
Church, His mystical Spouse, in recent centuries when she had to
endure such trials and surmount so many difficulties.
3.
The Church, rejoicing in this inestimable gift, can show forth a
more ardent love of her divine Founder, and can, in a more
generous and effective manner, respond to that invitation which
St. John the Evangelist relates as having come from Christ
Himself: "And on the last and great day of the festivity,
Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him
come to Me, and let him drink that believeth in Me. As the
Scripture saith: Out of his heart there shall flow rivers of
living waters.' Now this He said of the Spirit which they should
receive who believed in Him."(3)
4.
For those who were listening to Jesus speaking, it certainly was
not difficult to relate these words by which He promised the
fountain of "living water" destined to spring from His
own side, to the words of sacred prophecy of Isaias, Ezechiel and
Zacharias, foretelling the Messianic Kingdom, and likewise to the
symbolic rock from which, when struck by Moses, water flowed forth
in a miraculous manner.(4)
5.
Divine Love first takes its origin from the Holy Spirit, Who is
the Love in Person of the Father and the Son in the bosom of the
most Holy Trinity. Most aptly then does the Apostle of the
Gentiles echo, as it were, the words of Jesus Christ, when he
ascribes the pouring forth of love in the hearts of believers to
this Spirit of Love: "The charity of God is poured forth in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us."(5)
6.
Holy Writ declares that between divine charity, which must burn in
the souls of Christians, and the Holy Spirit, Who is certainly
Love Itself, there exists the closest bond, which clearly shows
all of us, venerable brethren, the intimate nature of that worship
which must be paid to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. If we
consider its special nature it is beyond question that this
devotion is an act of religion of high order; it demands of us a
complete and unreserved determination to devote and consecrate
ourselves to the love of the divine Redeemer, Whose wounded Heart
is its living token and symbol. It is equally clear, but at a
higher level, that this same devotion provides us with a most
powerful means of repaying the divine Lord by our own.
7.
Indeed it follows that it is only under the impulse of love that
the minds of men obey fully and perfectly the rule of the Supreme
Being, since the influence of our love draws us close to the
divine Will that it becomes as it were completely one with it,
according to the saying, "He who is joined to the Lord, is
one spirit."(6)
8.
The Church has always valued, and still does, the devotion to the
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus so highly that she provides for the
spread of it among Christian peoples everywhere and by every
means. At the same time she uses every effort to protect it
against the charges of so-called "naturalism" and
"sentimentalism." In spite of this it is much to be
regretted that, both in the past and in our own times, this most
noble devotion does not find a place of honor and esteem among
certain Christians and even occasionally not among those who
profess themselves moved by zeal for the Catholic religion and the
attainment of holiness.
9.
"If you but knew the gift of God."(7) With these words,
venerable brethren, We who in the secret designs of God have been
elected as the guardians and stewards of the sacred treasures of
faith and piety which the divine Redeemer has entrusted to His
Church, prompted by Our sense of duty, admonish them all.
10.
For even though the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has
triumphed so to speak, over the errors and the neglect of men, and
has penetrated entirely His Mystical Body; still there are some of
Our children who, led astray by prejudices, sometimes go so far as
to consider this devotion ill-adapted, not to say detrimental, to
the more pressing spiritual needs of the Church and humanity in
this present age. There are some who, confusing and confounding
the primary nature of this devotion with various individual forms
of piety which the Church approves and encourages but does not
command, regard this as a kind of additional practice which each
one may take up or not according to his own inclination.
11.
There are others who reckon this same devotion burdensome and of
little or no use to men who are fighting in the army of the divine
King and who are inspired mainly by the thought of laboring with
their own strength, their own resources and expenditures of their
own time, to defend Catholic truth, to teach and spread it, to
instill Christian social teachings, to promote those acts of
religion and those undertakings which they consider much more
necessary today.
12.
Again, there are those who so far from considering this devotion a
strong support for the right ordering and renewal of Christian
morals both in the individual's private life and in the home
circle, see it rather a type of piety nourished not by the soul
and mind but by the senses and consequently more suited to the use
of women, since it seems to them something not quite suitable for
educated men.
13.
Moreover there are those who consider a devotion of this kind as
primarily demanding penance, expiation and the other virtues which
they call "passive," meaning thereby that they produce
no external results. Hence they do not think it suitable to
re-enkindle the spirit of piety in modern times. Rather, this
should aim at open and vigorous action, at the triumph of the
Catholic faith, at a strong defense of Christian morals. Christian
morality today, as everyone knows, is easily contaminated by the
sophistries of those who are indifferent to any form of religion,
and who, discarding all distinctions between truth and falsehood,
whether in thought or in practice, accept even the most ignoble
corruptions of materialistic atheism, or as they call it,
secularism.
14.
Who does not see, venerable brethren, that opinions of this kind
are in entire disagreement with the teachings which Our
predecessors officially proclaimed from this seat of truth when
approving the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Who would be
so bold as to call that devotion useless and inappropriate to our
age which Our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, declared
to be "the most acceptable form of piety?" He had no
doubt that in it there was a powerful remedy for the healing of
those very evils which today also, and beyond question in a wider
and more serious way, bring distress and disquiet to individuals
and to the whole human race. "This devotion," he said,
"which We recommend to all, will be profitable to all."
And he added this counsel and encouragement with reference to the
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: "...hence those forces
of evil which have now for so long a time been taking root and
which so fiercely compel us to seek help from Him by Whose
strength alone they can be driven away. Who can He be but Jesus
Christ, the only begotten Son of God? 'For there is no other name
under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.'(8) We must
have recourse to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life."(9)
15.
No less to be approved, no less suitable for the fostering of
Christian piety was this devotion declared to be by Our
predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI. In an encyclical letter he
wrote: "Is not a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a
guide to a more perfect life contained in this one devotion?
Indeed, it more easily leads our minds to know Christ the Lord
intimately and more effectively turns our hearts to love Him more
ardently and to imitate Him more perfectly."(10)
16.
To Us, no less than to Our predecessors, these capital truths are
clear and certain. When We took up Our office of Supreme Pontiff
and saw, in full accord with Our prayers and desires, that the
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had increased and was
actually, so to speak, making triumphal progress among Christian
peoples, We rejoiced that from it were flowing through the whole
Church innumerable and salutary results. This We were pleased to
point out in Our first encyclical letter.(11)
17.
Through the years of Our pontificate - years filled not only with
bitter hardships but also with ineffable consolations these
effects have not diminished in number or power or beauty, but on
the contrary have increased. Indeed, happily there has begun a
variety of projects which are conducive to a rekindling of this
devotion. We refer to the formation of cultural associations for
the advancement of religion and of charitable works; publications
setting forth the true historical, ascetical and mystical doctrine
concerning this entire subject; pious works of atonement; and in
particular those manifestations of most ardent piety which the
Apostleship of Prayer has brought about, under whose auspices and
direction local gatherings - families, colleges, institutions -
and sometimes nations have been consecrated to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. To all these We have offered paternal congratulations on
many occasions, whether in letters written on the subject, in
personal addresses, or even in messages delivered over the
radio.(12)
18.
Therefore when We perceive so fruitful an abundance of healing
waters, that is, heavenly gifts of divine love, issuing from the
Sacred Heart of our Redeemer, spreading among countless children
of the Catholic Church by the inspiration and action of the divine
Spirit; We can only exhort you, venerable brethren, with fatherly
affection to join Us in giving tribute of praise and heartfelt
thanks to God, the Giver of all good gifts. We make Our own these
words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "Now to Him Who is able
to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand,
according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be glory in the
Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations world without end.
Amen."(13)
19.
But after We have paid Our debt of thanks to the Eternal God, We
wish to urge on you and on all Our beloved children of the Church
a more earnest consideration of those principles which take their
origin from Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers and
theologians and on which, as on solid foundations, the worship of
the Sacred Heart of Jesus rests. We are absolutely convinced that
not until we have made a profound study of the primary and loftier
nature of this devotion with the aid of the light of the divinely
revealed truth, can we rightly and fully appreciate its
incomparable excellence and the inexhaustible abundance of its
heavenly favors. Likewise by devout meditation and contemplation
of the innumerable benefits produced from it, we will be able to
celebrate worthily the completion of the first hundred years since
the observance of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was
extended to the Universal Church.
20.
Moved therefore by this consideration, to the end that the minds
of the faithful may have from Our hands salutary food and
consequently after such nourishment be able more easily to arrive
at a deeper understanding of the true nature of this devotion and
possess its rich fruits, We will undertake to explain those pages
of the Old and New Testament in which the infinite love of God for
the human race (which we shall never be able adequately to
contemplate) is revealed and set before us. Then, as occasion
offers, We shall touch upon the main lines of the commentaries
which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have handed down to
us. And finally, We shall strive to set in its true light the very
close connection which exists between the form of devotion paid to
the Heart of the divine Redeemer and the worship we owe to His
love and to the love of the Most Holy Trinity for all men. For We
think if only the main elements on which the most excellent form
of devotion rests are clarified in the light of Sacred Scripture
and the teachings of tradition, Christians can more easily
"draw waters with joy out of the Savior's
fountains."(14) By this We mean they can appreciate more
fully the full weight of the special importance which devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus enjoys in the liturgy of the Church and
in its internal and external life and action, and can also gather
those fruits of salvation by which each one can bring about a
healthy reform in his own conduct, as the bishops of the Christian
flock desire.
21.
That all may understand more exactly the teachings which the
selected texts of the Old and New Testament furnish concerning
this devotion, they must clearly understand the reasons why the
Church gives the highest form of worship to the Heart of the
divine Redeemer. As you well know, venerable brethren, the reasons
are two in number. The first, which applies also to the other
sacred members of the Body of Jesus Christ, rests on that
principle whereby we recognize that His Heart, the noblest part of
human nature, is hypostatically united to the Person of the divine
Word. Consequently, there must be paid to it that worship of
adoration with which the Church honors the Person of the Incarnate
Son of God Himself. We are dealing here with an article of faith,
for it has been solemnly defined in the general Council of Ephesus
and the second Council of Constantinople.(15)
22.
The other reason which refers in a particular manner to the Heart
of the divine Redeemer, and likewise demands in a special way that
the highest form of worship be paid to it, arises from the fact
that His Heart, more than all the other members of His body, is
the natural sign and symbol of His boundless love for the human
race. "There is in the Sacred Heart," as Our predecessor
of immortal memory, Leo XIII, pointed out, "the symbol and
express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us
to love in return."(16)
23.
It is of course beyond doubt that the Sacred Books never make
express mention of a special worship of veneration and love made
to the physical Heart of the Incarnate Word as the symbol of His
burning love. But if this must certainly be admitted, it cannot
cause us surprise nor in any way lead us to doubt the divine love
for us which is the principal object of this devotion; since that
love is proclaimed and insisted upon in the Old and in the New
Testament by the kind of images which strongly arouse our
emotions. Since these images were presented in the Sacred Writings
foretelling the coming of the Son of God made man, they can be
considered as a token of the noblest symbol and witness of that
divine love, that is, of the most Sacred and Adorable Heart of the
divine Redeemer.
24.
We do not think it essential to Our subject to cite at length
passages from the Old Testament books which contain truths
divinely revealed in ancient times. We consider it sufficient to
call to mind that the covenant made between God and the people and
sanctified by peace offerings - the first Law of which was written
on two tablets and made known by Moses(17) and explained by the
prophets - was an agreement established not only on the strong
foundation of God's supreme dominion and of man's duty of
obedience but was also based and nourished on more noble
considerations of love. The ultimate reason for obeying God, for
the people of Israel, was not the fear of divine vengeance which
the rumble of thunder and the lightning flashing from the top of
Mount Sinai struck into their souls, but was rather the love they
owed to God. "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord.
Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with thy whole heart, and thy
whole soul, and thy whole strength. And these words which I
command thee this day shall be in thy heart."(18)
25.
We do not wonder then, that Moses and the prophets, whom the
Angelic Doctor rightly names the "elders" of the chosen
people,(19) perceived clearly that the foundation of the whole Law
lay on this commandment of love, and described all the
circumstances and relationships which should exist between God and
His people by metaphors drawn from the natural love of a father
and his children, or a man and his wife, rather than from the
harsh imagery derived from the supreme dominion of God or the
obligation of subjecting ourselves in fear. And so, to take an
example, when Moses himself was singing his famous hymn in honor
of the people restored to freedom from the slavery of Egypt, and
wished to indicate it had come about by the power of God; he used
these symbolic and touching expressions: "As the eagle
enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, (God) spread
his wings, and hath taken him (Israel) and carried him on his
shoulders."(20)
26.
But perhaps none of the holy prophets has expressed and revealed
as clearly and vividly as Osee the love with which God always
watches over His people. In writings of this prophet, who is
outstanding among the minor prophets for the sublimity of his
concise language, God declares that His love for the chosen
people, combining justice and a holy anxiety, is like the love of
a merciful and loving father or of a husband whose honor is
offended. This love is not diminished or withdrawn in the face of
the perfidy or the horrible crimes of those who betray it. If it
inflicts just chastisements on the guilty, it is not for the
purpose of rejecting them or of abandoning them to themselves; but
rather to bring about the repentance and the purification of the
unfaithful spouse and ungrateful children, and to bind them once
more to itself with renewed and yet stronger bonds of love.
"Because Israel was a child, and I loved him; and I called my
son out of Egypt...And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, and
I carried them in my arms, and they knew not that I healed them. I
will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of love...I
will heal their wounds, I will love them; for My wrath is turned
away from them. I will be as a dew, Israel shall spring up as a
lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus."(21)
27.
Similar sentiments are uttered by the prophet Isaias when he
introduces a conversation in the form of question and answer, as
it were, between God and the chosen people: "And Sion said,
'the Lord hath forsaken me; the Lord hath forgotten me.' Can a
woman forget her infant so as not to have pity on the son of her
womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget
thee."(22)
28.
No less moving are the words which the author of the Canticle of
Canticles, employing comparisons from conjugal affection,
describes symbolically the bonds of mutual love by which God and
his chosen people are united to each other: "As the lily
among thorns, so is My love among the daughters...I to My beloved
and My beloved to Me, who feedeth among the lilies...Put Me as a
seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm; for love is strong as
death, [relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames are
a blazing fire]."(23)
29.
This most tender, forgiving and patient love of God, though it
deems unworthy the people of Israel as they add sin to sin,
nevertheless at no time casts them off entirely. And though it
seems strong and exalted indeed, yet it was only an advance symbol
of that burning charity which mankind's promised Redeemer, from
His most loving Heart, was destined to open to all and which was
to be the type of His love for us and the foundation of the new
covenant.
30.
Assuredly, when He who is the only begotten of the Father and the
Word made flesh "full of grace and truth"(24) had come
to men weighed down with many sins and miseries it was He alone,
from that human nature united hypostatically to the divine Person,
Who could open to the human race the "fountain of living
water" which would irrigate the parched land and transform it
into a fruitful and flourishing garden.
31.
That this most wondrous effect would come to pass as a result of
the merciful and everlasting love of God the prophet Jeremias
seems to foretell in a manner in these words: "I have loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn thee taking
pity on thee...Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I
shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Juda...this will be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will give
My law in their bowels, and will write it in their heart, and I
will be their God and they shall be My people...for I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."(25)
32.
But it is only in the Gospels that we find definitely and clearly
set out the new covenant between God and man; for that covenant
which Moses had made between the people of Israel and God was a
mere symbol and a sign of the covenant foretold by the prophet
Jeremias. We say that this new covenant is that very thing which
was established and effected by the work of the Incarnate Word Who
is the source of divine grace. This covenant is therefore to be
considered incomparably more excellent and more solid because it
was ratified [...by the most precious Blood of Christ]... "The Lamb
of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."(26)
33.
The Christian covenant, much more than that of the old, clearly
appears as an agreement based not on slavery or on fear, but as
one ratified by that friendship which ought to exist between a
father and his children, as one nourished and strengthened by a
more generous outpouring of divine grace and truth according to
the saying of St. John the Evangelist: "And of his fulness we
have all received, and grace for grace. For the Law was given by
Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."(27)
34.
Since we have been introduced, venerable brethren, to the
innermost mystery of the infinite charity of the Word Incarnate by
these words of the disciple "whom Jesus loved and who also
leaned on His breast at the supper,"(28) it seems meet and
just, right and availing unto salvation, to pause for a short time
in sweet contemplation of this mystery so that, enlightened by
that light which shines from the Gospel and makes clearer the
mystery itself, we also may be able to obtain the realization of
the desire of which the Apostle of the Gentiles speaks in writing
to the Ephesians. "That Christ may dwell by faith in your
hearts, that being rooted and founded in charity you may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length,
and height, and depth; to know also the charity of Christ which
surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the
fulness of God."(29)
35.
The mystery of the divine redemption is primarily and by its very
nature a mystery of love, that is, of the perfect love of Christ
for His heavenly Father to Whom the sacrifice of the Cross,
offered in a spirit of love and obedience, presents the most
abundant and infinite satisfaction due for the sins of the human
race; "By suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave
more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the
whole human race."(30)
36.
It is also a mystery of the love of the Most Holy Trinity and of
the divine Redeemer towards all men. Because they were entirely
unable to make adequate satisfaction for their sins,(31) Christ,
through the infinite treasure of His merits acquired for us by the
shedding of His precious Blood, was able to restore completely
that pact of friendship between God and man which had been broken,
first by the grievous fall of Adam in the earthly paradise and
then by the countless sins of the chosen people.
37.
Since our divine Redeemer as our lawful and perfect Mediator, out
of His ardent love for us, restored complete harmony between the
duties and obligations of the human race and the rights of God, He
is therefore responsible for the existence of that wonderful
reconciliation of divine justice and divine mercy which
constitutes the sublime mystery of our salvation. On this point
the Angelic Doctor wisely comments: "That man should be
delivered by Christ's Passion was in keeping with both His mercy
and His justice. With His justice, because by His Passion Christ
made satisfaction for the sins of the human race, and so man was
set free by Christ's justice; and with His mercy, for since man of
himself could not satisfy for the sin of all human nature, God
gave him His Son to satisfy for him. And this came of a more
copious mercy than if he had forgiven sins without satisfaction:
Hence St. Paul says: 'God, who is rich in mercy, by reason of His
very great love wherewith He has loved us even when we were dead
by reason of our sins, brought us to life together with
Christ.'"(32)
38.
But in order that we really may be able, so far as it is permitted
to mortal men, "to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth, and length, and height, and depth"(33) of the hidden
love of the Incarnate Word for His heavenly Father and for men
infected by the taint of sins, we must note well that His love was
not entirely the spiritual love proper to God inasmuch as
"God is a spirit."(34) Undoubtedly the love with which
God loved our forefathers and the Hebrew people was of this
nature. For this reason the expressions of human, intimate, and
paternal love which we find in the Psalms, the writings of the
prophets, and in the Canticle of Canticles are tokens and symbols
of the true but entirely spiritual love with which God continued
to sustain the human race. On the other hand, the love which
breathes from the Gospel, from the letters of the Apostles and the
pages of the Apocalypse, all of which portray the love of the
Heart of Jesus Christ, expresses not only divine love but also
human sentiments of love. All who profess themselves Catholics
accept this without question.
39.
For the Word of God did not assume a feigned and unsubstantial
body, as already in the first century of Christianity some
heretics declared and who were condemned in these solemn words of
St. John the Apostle: "For many seducers are gone out into
the world, who do confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh. Here is a seducer and the antichrist,"(35) but He
united to His divine Person a truly human nature, individual,
whole and perfect, which was conceived in the most pure womb of
the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost.(36)
40.
Nothing, then, was wanting to the human nature which the Word of
God united to Himself. Consequently He assumed it in no diminished
way, in no different sense in what concerns the spiritual and the
corporeal: that is, it was endowed with intellect and will and the
other internal and external faculties of perception, and likewise
with the desires and all the natural impulses of the senses. All
this the Catholic Church teaches as solemnly defined and ratified
by the Roman Pontiffs and the general councils. "Whole and
entire in what is His own, whole and entire in what is
ours."(37) "Perfect in His Godhead and likewise perfect
in His humanity."(38) "Complete God is man, complete man
is God."(39)
41.
Hence, since there can be no doubt that Jesus Christ received a
true body and had all the affections proper to the same, among
which love surpassed all the rest, it is likewise beyond doubt
that He was endowed with a physical heart like ours; for without
this noblest part of the body the ordinary emotions of human life
are impossible. Therefore the Heart of Jesus Christ,
hypostatically united to the divine Person of the Word, certainly
beat with love and with the other emotions - but these, joined to a
human will full of divine charity and to the infinite love itself
which the Son shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit, were in
such complete unity and agreement that never among these three
loves was there any contradiction of or disharmony.(40)
42.
However, even though the Word of God took to Himself a true and
perfect human nature, and made and fashioned for Himself a heart
of flesh, which, no less than ours could suffer and be pierced,
unless this fact is considered in the light of the hypostatic and
substantial union and in the light of its complement, the fact of
man's redemption, it can be a stumbling block and foolishness to
some, just as Jesus Christ, nailed to the Cross, actually was to
the Jewish race and to the Gentiles.(41)
43.
The official teachings of the Catholic faith, in complete
agreement with Scripture, assure us that the only begotten Son of
God took a human nature capable of suffering and death especially
because He desired, as He hung from the Cross, to offer a bloody
sacrifice in order to complete the work of man's salvation. This
the Apostle of the Gentiles teaches in another way: "For both
He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one.
For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
'I will declare thy name to My brethren'...And again, 'Behold I
and My children, whom God hath given Me.' Therefore, because the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also in like manner
hath been partaker of the same...Wherefore it behooved Him in all
things to be made like unto His brethren that He might become a
merciful and faithful high priest before God, that He might be a
propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that wherein He
Himself hath suffered and been tempted He is able to succor them
who are tempted."(42)
44.
The holy Fathers, true witnesses of the divinely revealed
doctrine, wonderfully understood what St. Paul the Apostle had
quite clearly declared; namely, that the mystery of love was, as
it were, both the foundation and the culmination of the
Incarnation and the Redemption. For frequently and clearly we can
read in their writings that Jesus Christ took a perfect human
nature and our weak and perishable human body with the object of
providing for our eternal salvation, and of revealing to us in the
clearest possible manner that His infinite love for us could
express itself in human terms.
45.
St. Justin, almost echoing the voice of the Apostle of the
Gentiles, writes: "We adore and love the Word born of the
unbegotten and ineffable God since He became man for our sake, so
that having become a partaker of our sufferings He might provide a
remedy for them."(43)
46.
St. Basil, the first of the three Cappadocian Fathers declares
that the feelings of the senses in Christ were at once true and
holy: "It is clear that the Lord did indeed put on natural
affections as a proof of His real and not imaginary Incarnation,
and that He rejected as unworthy of the Godhead those corrupt
affections which defile the purity of our life."(44)
47.
Similarly that light of the Church of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom,
admits that the emotion of the senses to which the divine Redeemer
was subject made obvious the fact that He assumed a human nature
complete in all respects: "For if He had not shared our
nature He would not have repeatedly been seized with
grief."(45)
48.
Among the Latin Fathers one may cite those whom the Church today
honors as the greatest doctors. Thus St. Ambrose bears witness
that the movements and dispositions of the senses, from which the
Incarnate Word of God was not exempt, flow from the hypostatic
union as from their natural source: "And therefore He put on
a soul and the passions of the soul; for God, precisely because He
is God, could not have been disturbed nor could He have
died."(46)
49.
It was from these very emotions that St. Jerome derived his chief
proof that Christ had really put on human nature: "Our Lord,
to prove the truth of the manhood He had assumed, experiences real
sadness."(47)
50.
But St. Augustine, in a special manner, notices the connections
that exist between the sentiments of the Incarnate Word and their
purpose, man's redemption. "These affections of human
infirmity, even as the human body itself and death, the Lord Jesus
put on not out of necessity, but freely out of compassion so that
He might transform in Himself His Body, which is the Church of
which He deigned to be the Head, that is, His members who are
among the faithful and the saints, so that if any of them in the
trials of this life should be saddened and afflicted they should
not therefore think that they are deprived of His grace. Nor
should they consider this sorrow a sin, but a sign of human
weakness. Like a choir singing in harmony with the note that has
been sounded, so should His Body learn from its Head."(48)
51.
More briefly, but no less effectively, do the following passages
from St. John Damascene set out the teaching of the Church:
"Complete God assumed me completely and complete man is
united to complete God so that He might bring salvation to
complete man. For what was not assumed could not be
healed."(49) "He therefore assumed all that He might
sanctify all."(50)
52.
However, it must be noted that although these selected passages
from Scripture and the Fathers and many similar ones that We have
not cited give clear testimony that Jesus Christ was endowed with
affections and sense perceptions, and hence that He assumed human
nature in order to work for our eternal salvation, yet they never
refer those affections to His physical heart in such a way as to
point to it clearly as the symbol of His infinite love.
53.
Granted that the Evangelists and other sacred writers do not
explicitly describe the Heart of our Redeemer, living and
throbbing like our own with the power of feeling, and ever
throbbing with the emotions and affections of His soul and the
glowing charity of His twofold will, yet they often set in their
proper light His divine love and the sense emotions which
accompany it; that is, desire, joy, weakness, fear and anger, as
shown by His face, words or gesture. The face of our adorable
Savior was especially the guide, and a kind of faithful
reflection, of those emotions which moved His soul in various ways
and like repeating waves touched His Sacred Heart and excited its
beating. For what is true of human psychology and its effects is
valid here also. The Angelic Doctor, relying on ordinary
experience, notes: "An emotion caused by anger is conveyed to
the external members, and particularly to those members in which
the heart's imprint is more obviously reflected, such as the eyes,
the face, and the tongue."(51)
54.
For these reasons, the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly
and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold
love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal
Father and all mankind.
55.
It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father
and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone
manifests through a weak and perishable body, since "in Him
dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily."(52)
56.
It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused
into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens
and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both
from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused.(53)
57.
And finally - and this in a more natural and direct way - it is
the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ,
formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so
than any other human body.(54)
58.
Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of
the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete
harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, and that
He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of
our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate
and honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of
His love and a witness of our redemption and, at the same time, as
a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the embrace of
"God our Savior."(55)
59.
Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those
works which manifest more clearly His love for us - such as the
divine institution of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings
and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the founding
of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit
upon the Apostles and upon us - all these, We say, ought to be
looked upon as proofs of His threefold love.
60.
Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His
Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time
of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the
Evangelists testify, "crying out with a loud voice 'It is
finished.', and bowing His Head, He yielded up the
ghost."(56) Then it was that His heart ceased to beat and His
sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over
death, He rose from the tomb.
61.
But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the
divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never
ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable
pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the
threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and
the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the
mystical Head.
62.
And now, venerable brethren, in order that we may be able to
gather from these holy considerations abundant and salutary
fruits, We desire to reflect on and briefly contemplate the
manifold affections, human and divine, of our Savior Jesus Christ
which His Heart made known to us during the course of His mortal
life and which It still does and will continue to do for all
eternity. From the pages of the Gospel particularly there shines
forth for us the light, by the brightness and strength of which we
can enter into the secret places of this divine Heart and, with
the Apostle of the Gentiles, gaze at "the abundant riches of
(God's) grace, in his bounty towards us in Christ Jesus."(57)
63.
The adorable Heart of Jesus Christ began to beat with a love at
once human and divine after the Virgin Mary generously pronounced
Her "Fiat"; and the Word of God, as the Apostle remarks:
"coming into the world, saith, 'Sacrifice and oblation thou
wouldst not; but a body thou hast fitted to Me..."(58)
64.
Likewise was He moved by love, completely in harmony with the
affections of His human will and the divine Love, when in the
house of Nazareth He conversed with His most sweet Mother and His
foster father, St. Joseph, in obedience to whom He performed
laborious tasks in the trade of a carpenter.
65.
Again, He was influenced by that threefold love, of which We
spoke, during His public life: in long apostolic journeys; in the
working of innumerable miracles, by which He summoned back the
dead from the grave or granted health to all manner of sick
persons; in enduring labors; in bearing fatigue, hunger and
thirst; in the nightly watchings during which He prayed most
lovingly to His Father; and finally, in His preaching and in
setting forth and explaining His parables, in those particularly
which deal with mercy - the lost drachma, the lost sheep, the
prodigal son. By these indeed both by act and by word, as St.
Gregory the Great notes, the Heart of God Itself is revealed:
"Learn the Heart of God in the words of God, that you may
long more ardently for things eternal."(59)
66.
But the Heart of Jesus Christ was moved by a more urgent charity
when from His lips were drawn words breathing the most ardent
love. Thus, to give examples: when He was gazing at the crowds
weary and hungry, He exclaimed: "I have compassion upon the
crowd";(60) and when He looked down on His beloved city of
Jerusalem, blinded by its sins, and so destined for final ruin, He
uttered this sentence: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
slayest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen
doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst
not!"(61) And His Heart beat with love for His Father and
with a holy anger when seeing the sacrilegious buying and selling
taking place in the Temple, He rebuked the violators with these
words: "It is written: My house shall be called a house of
prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves."(62)
67.
But His Heart was moved by a particularly intense love mingled
with fear as He perceived the hour of His bitter torments drawing
near and, expressing a natural repugnance for the approaching
pains and death, He cried out: "Father, if it be possible,
let this chalice pass from Me."(63) And when He was greeted
by the traitor with a kiss, in love triumphant united to deepest
grief, He addressed to him those words which seem to be the final
invitation of His most merciful Heart to the friend who, obdurate
in his wicked treachery, was about to hand Him over to His
executioners: "Friend, whereto art thou come? Dost thou
betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"(64) It was out of pity
and the depths of His love that He spoke to the devout women as
they wept for Him on His way to the unmerited penalty of the
Cross: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep
for yourselves and for your children...For if in the green wood
they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?"(65)
68.
And when the divine Redeemer was hanging on the Cross, He showed
that His Heart was strongly moved by different emotions - burning
love, desolation, pity, longing desire, unruffled peace. The words
spoken plainly indicate these emotions: "Father, forgive
them; they know not what they do!"(66) "My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me?"(67) "Amen, I say to thee,
this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise."(68) "I
thirst."(69) "Father, into Thy hands I commend My
spirit."(70)
69.
But who can worthily depict those beatings of the divine Heart,
the signs of His infinite love, of those moments when He granted
men His greatest gifts: Himself in the Sacrament of the Eucharist,
His most holy Mother, and the office of the priesthood shared with
us?
70.
Even before He ate the Last Supper with His disciples Christ Our
Lord, since He knew He was about to institute the sacrament of His
body and blood by the shedding of which the new covenant was to be
consecrated, felt His heart roused by strong emotions, which He
revealed to the Apostles in these words: "With desire have I
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer."(71) And
these emotions were doubtless even stronger when "taking
bread, He gave thanks, and broke, and gave to them, saying, 'This
is My body which is given for you, this do in commemoration of
Me.' Likewise the chalice also, after He had supped, saying, 'This
chalice is the new testament in My blood, which shall be shed for
you.'"(72)
71.
It can therefore be declared that the divine Eucharist, both the
sacrament which He gives to men and the sacrifice in which He
unceasingly offers Himself from the rising of the sun till the
going down thereof,"(73) and likewise the priesthood, are
indeed gifts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
72.
Another most precious gift of His Sacred Heart is, as We have
said, Mary the beloved Mother of God and the most loving Mother of
us all. She who gave birth to our Savior according to the flesh
and was associated with Him in recalling the children of Eve to
the life of divine grace has deservedly been hailed as the
spiritual Mother of the whole human race. And so St. Augustine
writes of her: "Clearly She is Mother of the members of the
Savior (which is what we are), because She labored with Him in
love that the faithful who are members of the Head might be born
in the Church."(74)
73.
To the unbloody gift of Himself under the appearance of bread and
wine our Savior Jesus Christ wished to join, as the chief proof of
His deep and infinite love, the bloody sacrifice of the Cross. By
this manner of acting He gave an example of His supreme charity,
which He had proposed to His disciples as the highest point of
love in these words: "Greater love than this no man hath,
that a man lay down his life for his friends."(75)
74.
Thus the love of Jesus Christ the Son of God, by the sacrifice of
Golgotha, cast a flood of light on the meaning of the love of God
Himself: "In this we know the charity of God, because He hath
laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren."(76) And in truth it was more by love than by
the violence of the executioners that our divine Redeemer was
fixed to the Cross; and His voluntary total offering is the
supreme gift which He gave to each man, according to that terse
saying of the Apostles, "He loved me, and delivered Himself
for me."(77)
75.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus shares in a most intimate way in the
life of the Incarnate Word, and has been thus assumed as a kind of
instrument of the Divinity. It is therefore beyond all doubt that,
in the carrying out of works of grace and divine omnipotence, His
Heart, no less than the other members of His human nature is also
a legitimate symbol of that unbounded love.(78)
76.
Under the influence of this love, our Savior, by the outpouring of
His blood, became wedded to His Church: "By love, He allowed
Himself to be espoused to His Church."(79) Hence, from the
wounded Heart of the Redeemer was born the Church, the dispenser
of the Blood of the Redemption - whence flows that plentiful
stream of Sacramental grace from which the children of the Church
drink of eternal life, as we read in the sacred liturgy:
"From the pierced Heart, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is
born...And He pours forth grace from His Heart."(80)
77.
Concerning the meaning of this symbol, which was known even to the
earliest Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, St. Thomas Aquinas,
echoing something of their words, writes as follows: "From
the side of Christ, there flowed water for cleansing, blood for
redeeming. Hence blood is associated with the sacrament of the
Eucharist, water with the sacrament of Baptism, which has its
cleansing power by virtue of the blood of Christ."(81)
78.
What is here written of the side of Christ, opened by the wound
from the soldier, should also be said of the Heart which was
certainly reached by the stab of the lance, since the soldier
pierced it precisely to make certain that Jesus Christ crucified
was really dead. Hence the wound of the most Sacred Heart of
Jesus, now that He has completed His mortal life, remains through
the course of the ages a striking image of that spontaneous
charity by which God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption
of men and by which Christ expressed such passionate love for us
that He offered Himself as a bleeding victim on Calvary for our
sake: "Christ loved us and delivered Himself for us, an
oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of
sweetness."(82)
79.
After our Lord had ascended into heaven with His body adorned with
the splendors of eternal glory and took His place by the right
hand of the Father, He did not cease to remain with His Spouse,
the Church, by means of the burning love with which His Heart
beats. For He bears in His hands, feet and side the glorious marks
of the wounds which manifest the threefold victory won over the
devil, sin, and death.
80.
He likewise keeps in His Heart, locked as it were in a most
precious shrine, the unlimited treasures of His merits, the fruits
of that same threefold triumph, which He generously bestows on the
redeemed human race. This is a truth full of consolation, which
the Apostle of the Gentiles expresses in these words:
"Ascending on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts
to men...He that descended, is the same also that ascended above
all the heavens that He might fill all things."(83)
81.
The gift of the Holy Spirit, sent upon His disciples, is the first
notable sign of His abounding charity after His triumphant ascent
to the right hand of His Father. For after ten days the Holy
Spirit, given by the heavenly Father, came down upon them gathered
in the Upper Room in accordance with the promise made at the Last
Supper: "I will ask the Father and He will give you another
Paraclete so that He may abide with you forever."(84) And
this Paraclete, who is the mutual personal love between the Father
and the Son, is sent by both and, under the adopted appearance of
tongues of fire, poured into their souls an abundance of divine
charity and the other heavenly gifts.
82.
The infusion of this divine charity also has its origin in the
Heart of the Savior, "in which are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge."(85) For this charity is the gift of
Jesus Christ and of His Spirit; for He is indeed the spirit of the
Father and the Son from whom the origin of the Church and its
marvelous extension is revealed to all the pagan races which had
been defiled by idolatry, family hatred, corrupt morals, and
violence.
83.
This divine charity is the most precious gift of the Heart of
Christ and of His Spirit: It is this which imparted to the
Apostles and martyrs that fortitude, by the strength of which they
fought their battles like heroes till death in order to preach the
truth of the Gospel and bear witness to it by the shedding of
their blood; it is this which implanted in the Doctors of the
Church their intense zeal for explaining and defending the
Catholic faith; this nourished the virtues of the confessors, and
roused them to those marvelous works useful for their own
salvation and beneficial to the salvation of others both in this
life and in the next; this, finally, moved the virgins to a free
and joyful withdrawal from the pleasures of the senses and to the
complete dedication of themselves to the love of their heavenly
Spouse.
84.
It was to pay honor to this divine charity which, overflowing from
the Heart of the Incarnate Word, is poured out by the aid of the
Holy Spirit into the souls of all believers that the Apostle of
the Gentiles uttered this hymn of triumph which proclaims the
victory of Christ the Head, and of the members of His Mystical
Body, over all which might in any way impede the establishment of
the kingdom of love among men: "Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress? or famine? or
nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?...But in all
these things we overcome because of Him that hath loved us. For I
am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor might, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord."(86)
85.
Nothing therefore prevents our adoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Christ as having a part in and being the natural and expressive
symbol of the abiding love with which the divine Redeemer is still
on fire for mankind. Though it is no longer subject to the varying
emotions of this mortal life, yet it lives and beats and is united
inseparably with the Person of the divine Word and, in Him and
through Him, with the divine Will. Since then the Heart of Christ
is overflowing with love both human and divine and rich with the
treasure of all graces which our Redeemer acquired by His life,
sufferings and death, it is therefore the enduring source of that
charity which His Spirit pours forth on all the members of His
Mystical Body.
86.
And so the Heart of our Savior reflects in some way the image of
the divine Person of the Word and, at the same time, of His
twofold nature, the human and the divine; in it we can consider
not only the symbol but, in a sense, the summary of the whole
mystery of our redemption. When we adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Christ, we adore in it and through it both the uncreated love of
the divine Word and also its human love and its other emotions and
virtues, since both loves moved our Redeemer to sacrifice Himself
for us and for His Spouse, the Universal Church, as the Apostle
declares: "Christ loved the Church, and delivered Himself up
for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of
water in the word of life, that He might present it to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish."(87)
87.
Just as Christ loved the Church, so He still loves it most
intensely with that threefold love of which We spoke, which moved
Him as our Advocate(88) "always living to make intercession
for us"(89) to win grace and mercy for us from His Father.
The prayers which are drawn from that unfailing love, and are
directed to the Father, never cease. As "in the days of His
flesh,"(90) so now victorious in heaven, He makes His
petition to His heavenly Father with equal efficacy, to Him
"Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life
everlasting,"(91) He shows His living Heart, wounded as it
were, and throbbing with a love yet more intense than when it was
wounded in death by the Roman soldier's lance: "(Thy Heart)
has been wounded so that through the visible wound we may behold
the invisible wound of love."(92)
88.
It is beyond doubt, then, that His heavenly Father "Who
spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all,"(93) when appealed to with such loving urgency by so
powerful an Advocate, will, through Him, send down on all men an
abundance of divine graces.
89.
It was Our wish, venerable brethren, by this general outline, to
set before you and the faithful the inner nature of the devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ and the endless riches which
spring from it as they are made clear by the primary source of
doctrine, divine revelation. We think that Our comments, which are
guided by the light of the Gospel, have proved that this devotion,
summarily expressed, is nothing else than devotion to the divine
and human love of the Incarnate Word and to the love by which the
heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit exercise their care over
sinful men. For, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, the love of the
most Holy Trinity is the origin of man's redemption; it overflowed
into the human will of Jesus Christ and into His adorable Heart
with full efficacy and led Him, under the impulse of that love, to
pour forth His blood to redeem us from the captivity of sin(94):
"I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, and how
great is my anguish until it be accomplished!"(95)
90.
We are convinced, then, that the devotion which We are fostering
to the love of God and Jesus Christ for the human race by means of
the revered symbol of the pierced Heart of the crucified Redeemer
has never been altogether unknown to the piety of the faithful,
although it has become more clearly known and has spread in a
remarkable manner throughout the Church in quite recent times.
Particularly was this so after our Lord Himself had privately
revealed this divine secret to some of His children to whom He had
granted an abundance of heavenly gifts, and whom He had chosen as
His special messengers and heralds of this devotion.
91.
But, in fact, there have always been men specially dedicated to
God who, following the example of the beloved Mother of God, of
the Apostles and the great Fathers of the Church, have practiced
the devotion of thanksgiving, adoration and love towards the most
sacred human nature of Christ, and especially towards the wounds
by which His body was torn when He was enduring suffering for our
salvation.
92.
Moreover, is there not contained in those words "My Lord and
My God"(96) which St. Thomas the Apostle uttered, and which
showed he had been changed from an unbeliever into a faithful
follower, a profession of faith, adoration and love, mounting up
from the wounded human nature of his Lord to the majesty of the
divine Person?
93.
But if men have always been deeply moved by the pierced Heart of
the Savior to a worship of that infinite love with which He
embraces mankind - since the words of the prophet Zacharias,
"They shall look on Him Whom they have pierced,"(97)
referred by St. John the Evangelist to Jesus nailed to the Cross,
have been spoken to Christians in all ages - it must yet be
admitted that it was only by a very gradual advance that the
honors of a special devotion were offered to that Heart as
depicting the love, human and divine, which exists in the
Incarnate Word.
94.
But for those who wish to touch on the more significant stages of
this devotion through the centuries, if we consider outward
practice, there immediately occur the names of certain individuals
who have won particular renown in this matter as being the advance
guard of a form of piety which, privately and very gradually, has
gained more and more strength in religious congregations. To cite
some examples in establishing this devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus and continuously promoting it, great service was rendered by
St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Gertrude, St. Catherine
of Siena, Blessed Henry Suso, St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis de
Sales. St. John Eudes was responsible for the first liturgical
office celebrated in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus whose
solemn feast, with the approval of many Bishops in France, was
observed for the first time on October 20th, 1672.
95.
But surely the most distinguished place among those who have
fostered this most excellent type of devotion is held by St.
Margaret Mary Alacoque who, under the spiritual direction of
Blessed Claude de la Colombiere who assisted her work, was on fire
with an unusual zeal to see to it that the real meaning of the
devotion which had had such extensive developments to the great
edification of the faithful should be established and be
distinguished from other forms of Christian piety by the special
qualities of love and reparation.(98)
96.
It is enough to recall the record of that age in which the
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began to develop to
understand clearly that its marvelous progress has stemmed from
the fact that it entirely agreed with the nature of Christian
piety since it was a devotion of love. It must not be said that
this devotion has taken its origin from some private revelation of
God and has suddenly appeared in the Church; rather, it has
blossomed forth of its own accord as a result of that lively faith
and burning devotion of men who were endowed with heavenly gifts,
and who were drawn towards the adorable Redeemer and His glorious
wounds which they saw as irresistible proofs of that unbounded
love.
97.
Consequently, it is clear that the revelations made to St.
Margaret Mary brought nothing new into Catholic doctrine. Their
importance lay in this that Christ Our Lord, exposing His Sacred
Heart, wished in a quite extraordinary way to invite the minds of
men to a contemplation of, and a devotion to, the mystery of God's
merciful love for the human race. In this special manifestation
Christ pointed to His Heart, with definite and repeated words, as
the symbol by which men should be attracted to a knowledge and
recognition of His love; and at the same time He established it as
a sign or pledge of mercy and grace for the needs of the Church of
our times.
98.
In addition, that this devotion flows from the very foundations of
Christian teaching is clearly shown by the fact that the Apostolic
See approved the liturgical feast before it approved the writings
of St. Margaret Mary; for without exactly taking account of any
private revelation from God, but rather graciously acceeding to
the petitions of the faithful, the Sacred Congregation of Rites -
by a decree of the 25th of January 1765, which was approved by Our
predecessor, Clement XIII, on the 6th of February of the same year
- granted the liturgical celebration of the feast to the Polish
Bishops and to what was called the Archconfraternity of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus at Rome. The Apostolic See acted in this way so
that the devotion then existing and flourishing might be extended,
since its purpose was "by this symbol to renew the memory of
that divine love"(99) by which Our Savior was moved to offer
Himself as a victim atoning for the sins of men.
99.
This first approval, granted as a privilege and restricted within
limits, was followed about a century later by another of far
greater importance and couched in more solemn terms. We mean the
decree, which We referred to above, of the Sacred Congregation of
Rites of the 23rd of August 1856 by which Our predecessor of
immortal memory, Pius IX, in answer to the prayer of the French
Bishops and of almost the whole Catholic world, extended the feast
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Universal Church and ordered
it to be fittingly observed.(100) This act richly deserved to be
commended to the lasting memory of the faithful, for as we read in
the liturgy of the same feast: "From that time the devotion
to the Sacred Heart, like a stream in flood sweeping aside all
obstacles, spread out over the whole world."
100.
From what We have so far explained, venerable brethren, it is
clear that the faithful must seek from Scripture, tradition and
the sacred liturgy as from a deep untainted source, the devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus if they desire to penetrate its inner
nature and by piously meditating on it, receive the nourishment
for the fostering and development of their religious fervor. If
this devotion is constantly practiced with this knowledge and
understanding, the souls of the faithful cannot but attain to the
sweet knowledge of the love of Christ which is the perfection of
Christian life as the Apostle, who knew this from personal
experience, teaches: "For this cause I bow my knees to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...that He may grant you, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit with
might unto the inward man; that Christ may dwell by faith in your
hearts; that, being rooted and founded in charity...you may be
able to know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth all
knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of
God."(101) The clearest image of this all-embracing fullness
of God is the Heart of Christ Jesus Itself. We mean the fullness
of mercy which is proper to the New Testament, in which "the
goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared,"(102) for
"God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but
that the world might be saved by Him."(103)
101.
The Church, the teacher of men, has therefore always been
convinced from the time she first published official documents
concerning the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that its
essential elements, namely, acts of love and reparation by which
God's infinite love for the human race is honored, are in no sense
tinged with so-called "materialism" or tainted with the
poison of superstition. Rather, this devotion is a form of piety
that fully corresponds to the true spiritual worship which the
Savior Himself foretold when speaking to the woman of Samaria:
"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall
adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also
seeketh such to adore Him. God is a spirit; and they that adore
Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth."(104)
102.
It is wrong, therefore, to assert that the contemplation of the
physical Heart of Jesus prevents an approach to a close love of
God and holds back the soul on the way to the attainment of the
highest virtues. This false mystical doctrine the Church
emphatically rejects as, speaking through Our predecessor of happy
memory, Innocent XI, she rejected the errors of those who
foolishly declared: "(Souls of this interior way) ought not
to make acts of love for the Blessed Virgin, the Saints or the
humanity of Christ; for love directed towards those is of the
senses, since its objects are also of that kind. No creature,
neither the Blessed Virgin nor the Saints, ought to have a place
in our heart, because God alone wishes to occupy it and possess
it."(105) It is obvious that those who think in this way
imagine that the image of the Heart of Jesus represents His human
love alone and that there is nothing in it on which, as on a new
foundation, the worship of adoration which is exclusively reserved
to the divine nature can be based. But everyone realizes that this
interpretation of sacred images is entirely false, since it
obviously restricts their meaning much too narrowly.
103.
Quite the contrary is the thought and teaching of Catholic
theologians, among whom St. Thomas writes as follows:
"Religious worship is not paid to images, considered in
themselves, as things; but according as they are representations
leading to God Incarnate. The approach which is made to the image
as such does not stop there, but continues towards that which is
represented. Hence, because a religious honor is paid to the
images of Christ, it does not therefore mean that there are
different degrees of supreme worship or of the virtue of
religion."(106) It is, then, to the Person of the divine Word
as to its final object that that devotion is directed which, in a
relative sense, is observed towards the images whether those
images are relics of the bitter sufferings which our Savior
endured for our sake or that particular image which surpasses all
the rest in efficacy and meaning, namely, the pierced Heart of the
crucified Christ.
104.
Thus, from something corporeal such as the Heart of Jesus Christ
with its natural meaning, it is both lawful and fitting for us,
supported by Christian faith, to mount not only to its love as
perceived by the senses but also higher, to a consideration and
adoration of the infused heavenly love; and finally, by a movement
of the soul at once sweet and sublime, to reflection on, and
adoration of, the divine love of the Word Incarnate. We do so
since, in accordance with the faith by which we believe that both
natures - the human and the divine - are united in the Person of
Christ, we can grasp in our minds those most intimate ties which
unite the love of feeling of the physical Heart of Jesus with that
twofold spiritual love, namely, the human and the divine love. For
these loves must be spoken of not only as existing side by side in
the adorable Person of the divine Redeemer but also as being
linked together by a natural bond insofar as the human love,
including that of the feelings, is subject to the divine and, in
due proportion, provides us with an image of the latter. We do not
pretend, however, that we must contemplate and adore in the Heart
of Jesus what is called the formal image, that is to say, the
perfect and absolute symbol of His divine love, for no created
image is capable of adequately expressing the essence of this
love. But a Christian in paying honor along with the Church to the
Heart of Jesus is adoring the symbol and, as it were, the visible
sign of the divine charity which went so far as to love intensely,
through the Heart of the Word made Flesh, the human race stained
with so many sins.
105.
It is therefore essential, at this point, in a doctrine of such
importance and requiring such prudence that each one constantly
hold that the truth of the natural symbol by which the physical
Heart of Jesus is related to the Person of the Word, entirely
depends upon the fundamental truth of the hypostatic union. Should
anyone declare this to be untrue he would be reviving false
opinions, more than once condemned by the Church, for they are
opposed to the oneness of the Person of Christ even though the two
natures are each complete and distinct.
106.
Once this essential truth has been established we understand that
the Heart of Jesus is the heart of a divine Person, the Word
Incarnate, and by it is represented and, as it were, placed before
our gaze all the love with which He has embraced and even now
embraces us. Consequently, the honor to be paid to the Sacred
Heart is such as to raise it to the rank - so far as external
practice is concerned - of the highest expression of Christian
piety. For this is the religion of Jesus which is centered on the
Mediator who is man and God, and in such a way that we cannot
reach the Heart of God save through the Heart of Christ, as He
Himself says: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one
cometh to the Father save by Me."(107)
107.
And so we can easily understand that the devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, of its very nature, is a worship of the love with
which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an
exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to
other men. Or to express it in another way, devotion of this kind
is directed towards the love of God for us in order to adore it,
give thanks for it, and live so as to imitate it; it has this in
view, as the end to be attained, that we bring that love by which
we are bound to God to the rest of men to perfect fulfillment by
carrying out daily more eagerly the new commandment which the
divine Master gave to His Apostles as a sacred legacy when He
said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another as I have loved you...This is My commandment that you love
one another as I have loved you."(108) And this commandment
is really new and Christ's own, for as Aquinas says, "It is,
in brief, the difference between the New and the Old Testament,
for as Jeremias says, 'I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel.'(109) But that commandment which in the Old Testament
was based on fear and reverential love was referring to the New
Testament; hence, this commandment was in the old Law not really
belonging to it, but as a preparation for the new Law."(110)
108.
Before We conclude Our treatment of the concept of this type of
devotion and its excellence in Christian life, which We have
offered for your consideration - a subject at once attractive and
full of consolation - by virtue of the Apostolic office which was
first entrusted to Blessed Peter after he had made his threefold
profession of love, We think it opportune to exhort you once again
venerable brethren, and through you all those dear children of
Ours in Christ, to continue to exercise an ever more vigorous zeal
in promoting this most attractive form of piety; for from it in
our times also We trust that very many benefits will arise.
109.
In truth, if the arguments brought forward which form the
foundation for the devotion to the pierced Heart of Jesus are duly
pondered, it is surely clear that there is no question here of
some ordinary form of piety which anyone at his own whim may treat
as of little consequence or set aside as inferior to others, but
of a religious practice which helps very much towards the
attaining of Christian perfection. For if "devotion" -
according to the accepted theological notion which the Angelic
Doctor gives us - "appears to be nothing else save a
willingness to give oneself readily to what concerns the service
of God,"(111) is it possible that there is any service of God
more obligatory and necessary, and at the same time more excellent
and attractive, than the one which is dedicated to love? For what
is more pleasing and acceptable to God than service which pays
homage to the divine love and is offered for the sake of that love
- since any service freely offered is a gift in some sense and
love "has the position of the first gift, through which all
other free gifts are made?"(112)
110.
That form of piety, then, should be held in highest esteem by
means of which man honors and loves God more and dedicates himself
with greater ease and promptness to the divine charity; a form
which our Redeemer Himself deigned to propose and commend to
Christians and which the Supreme Pontiffs in their turn defended
and highly praised in memorable published documents. Consequently,
to consider of little worth this signal benefit conferred on the
Church by Jesus Christ would be to do something both rash and
harmful and also deserving of God's displeasure.
111.
This being so, there is no doubt that Christians in paying homage
to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer are fulfilling a serious part
of their obligations in their service of God and, at the same
time, they are surrendering themselves to their Creator and
Redeemer with regard to both the affections of the heart and the
external activities of their life; in this way, they are obeying
that divine commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole
mind, and with thy whole Strength."(113)
112.
Besides, they have the firm conviction that they are moved to
honor God not primarily for their own advantage in what concerns
soul and body in this life and in the next, but for the sake of
God's goodness they strive to render Him their homage, to give Him
back love for love, to adore Him and offer Him due thanks. Were it
not so, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ would be
out of harmony with the whole spirit of the Christian religion,
since man would not direct his homage, in the first instance, to
the divine love. And, not unreasonably as sometimes happens,
accusations of excessive self-love and self-interest are made
against those who either misunderstand this excellent form of
piety or practice it in the wrong way. Hence, let all be
completely convinced that in showing devotion to the most Sacred
Heart of Jesus the external acts of piety have not the first or
most important place; nor is its essence to be found primarily in
the benefits to be obtained. For if Christ has solemnly promised
them in private revelations it was for the purpose of encouraging
men to perform with greater fervor the chief duties of the
Catholic religion, namely, love and expiation, and thus take all
possible measures for their own spiritual advantage.
113.
We therefore urge all Our children in Christ, both those who are
already accustomed to drink the saving waters flowing from the
Heart of the Redeemer and, more especially those who look on from
a distance like hesitant spectators, to eagerly embrace this
devotion. Let them carefully consider, as We have said, that it is
a question of a devotion which has long been powerful in the
Church and is solidly founded on the Gospel narrative. It received
clear support from tradition and the sacred liturgy and has been
frequently and generously praised by the Roman Pontiffs
themselves. These were not satisfied with establishing a feast in
honor of the most Sacred Heart of the Redeemer and extending it to
the Universal Church; they were also responsible for the solemn
acts of dedication which consecrated the whole human race to the
same Sacred Heart.(114)
114.
Moreover, there are to be reckoned the abundant and joyous fruits
which have flowed therefrom to the Church: countless souls
returned to the Christian religion, the faith of many roused to
greater activity, a closer tie between the faithful and our most
loving Redeemer. All these benefits particularly in the most
recent decades, have passed before Our eyes in greater numbers and
more dazzling significance.
115.
While We gaze round at such a marvelous sight, namely, a devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus both warm and widespread among all
ranks of the faithful, We are filled with a sense of gratitude and
joy and consolation. And after We have offered thanks, as We
ought, to our Redeemer Who is the infinite treasury of goodness,
We cannot help offering Our paternal congratulations to all those,
whether of the clergy or of the laity, who have made active
contribution to the extending of this devotion.
116.
But although, venerable brethren, devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus has everywhere brought forth fruits of salvation for the
Christian life, all are aware that the Church militant on earth -
and especially civil society - has not yet attained in a real
sense to its essential perfection which would correspond to the
prayers and desires of Jesus Christ, the Mystical Spouse of the
Church and Redeemer of the human race. Not a few children of the
Church mar, by their too many sins and imperfections, the beauty
of this Mother's features which they reflect in themselves. Not
all Christians are distinguished by that holiness of behavior to
which God calls them; not all sinners have returned to the Father's house, which they unfortunately abandoned, that they may be
clothed once again with the "first robe"(115) and
worthily receive on their finger the ring, the pledge of loyalty
to the spouse of their soul; not all the heathen peoples have yet
been gathered into the membership of the Mystical Body of Christ.
117.
And there is more. For if We experience bitter sorrow at the
feeble loyalty of the good in whose souls, tricked by a deceptive
desire for earthly possessions, the fire of divine charity grows
cool and gradually dies out, much more is Our heart deeply grieved
by the machinations of evil men who, as if instigated by Satan
himself, are now more than ever zealous in their open and
implacable hatred against God, against the Church and above all
against him who on earth represents the Person of the divine
Redeemer and exhibits His love towards men, in accordance with
that well-known saying of the Doctor of Milan: "For (Peter)
is being questioned about that which is uncertain, though the Lord
is not uncertain; He is questioning not that He may learn, but
that He may teach the one whom, at His ascent into Heaven, He was
leaving to us as 'the representative of His love.'"(116)
118.
But, in truth, hatred of God and of those who lawfully act in His
place is the greatest kind of sin that can be committed by man
created in the image and likeness of God and destined to enjoy His
perfect and enduring friendship forever in heaven. Man, by hatred
of God more than by anything else, is cut off from the Highest
Good and is driven to cast aside from himself and from those near
to him whatever has its origin in God, whatever is united with
God, whatever leads to the enjoyment of God, that is, truth,
virtue, peace and justice.(117)
119.
Since then, alas, one can see that the number of those whose boast
is that they are God's enemies is in some places increasing, that
the false slogans of materialism are being spread by act and
argument, and unbridled license for unlawful desires is everywhere
being praised, is it remarkable that love, which is the supreme
law of the Christian religion, the surest foundation of true and
perfect justice and the chief source of peace and innocent
pleasures, loses its warmth in the souls of many? For as our
Savior warned us: "Because iniquity hath abounded, the
charity of many shall grow cold."(118)
120.
When so many evils meet Our gaze - such as cause sharp conflict
among individuals, families, nations and the whole world,
particularly today more than at any other time - where are We to
seek a remedy, venerable brethren? Can a form of devotion
surpassing that to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be found, which
corresponds better to the essential character of the Catholic
faith, which is more capable of assisting the present-day needs of
the Church and the human race? What religious practice is more
excellent, more attractive, more salutary than this, since the
devotion in question is entirely directed towards the love of God
itself?(119)
Finally,
what more effectively than the love of Christ - which devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus daily increases and fosters more and
more - can move the faithful to bring into the activities of life
the Law of the Gospel, the setting aside of which, as the words of
the Holy Spirit plainly warn, "the work of justice shall be
peace,"(120) makes peace worthy of the name completely
impossible among men?
121.
And so, following in the footsteps of Our immediate predecessor,
We are pleased to address once again to all Our dear sons in
Christ those words of exhortation which Leo XIII, of immortal
memory, towards the close of last century addressed to all the
faithful and to all who were genuinely anxious about their own
salvation and that of civil society: "Behold, today, another
true sign of God's favor is presented to our gaze, namely, the
Sacred Heart of Jesus...shining forth with a wondrous splendor
from amidst flames. In it must all our hopes be placed; from it
salvation is to be sought and hoped for."(121)
122.
It is likewise Our most fervent desire that all who profess
themselves Christians and are seriously engaged in the effort to
establish the kingdom of Christ on earth will consider the
practice of devotion to the Heart of Jesus as the source and
symbol of unity, salvation and peace. Let no one think, however,
that by such a practice anything is taken from the other forms of
piety with which Christian people, under the guidance of the
Church, have honored the divine Redeemer. Quite the opposite.
Fervent devotional practice towards the Heart of Jesus will beyond
all doubt foster and advance devotion to the Holy Cross in
particular, and love for the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. We
can even assert - as the revelations made by Jesus Christ to St.
Gertrude and to St. Margaret Mary clearly show - that no one
really ever has a proper understanding of Christ crucified to whom
the inner mysteries of His Heart have not been made known. Nor
will it be easy to understand the strength of the love which moved
Christ to give Himself to us as our spiritual food save by
fostering in a special way the devotion to the Eucharistic Heart
of Jesus, the purpose of which is - to use the words of Our
predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII - "to call to mind the
act of supreme love whereby our Redeemer, pouring forth all the
treasures of His Heart in order to remain with us till the end of
time, instituted the adorable Sacrament of the
Eucharist."(122) For "not the least part of the
revelation of that Heart is the Eucharist, which He gave to us out
of the great charity of His own Heart."(123)
123.
Finally, moved by an earnest desire to set strong bulwarks against
the wicked designs of those who hate God and the Church and, at
the same time, to lead men back again, in their private and public
life, to a love of God and their neighbor, We do not hesitate to
declare that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the most
effective school of the love of God; the love of God, We say,
which must be the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God
in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations, as that same
predecessor of pious memory wisely reminds us: "The reign of
Jesus Christ takes its strength and form from divine love: to love
with holiness and order is its foundation and its perfection. From
it these must flow: to perform duties without blame; to take away
nothing of another's right; to guide the lower human affairs by
heavenly principles; to give the love of God precedence over all
other creatures."(124)
124.
In order that favors in greater abundance may flow on all
Christians, nay, on the whole human race, from the devotion to the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus, let the faithful see to it that to
this devotion the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God is closely
joined. For, by God's Will, in carrying out the work of human
Redemption the Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably linked with
Christ in such a manner that our salvation sprang from the love
and the sufferings of Jesus Christ to which the love and sorrows
of His Mother were intimately united. It is, then, entirely
fitting that the Christian people - who received the divine life
from Christ through Mary - after they have paid their debt of
honor to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should also offer to the most
loving Heart of their heavenly Mother the corresponding acts of
piety, affection, gratitude and expiation. Entirely in keeping with
this most sweet and wise disposition of divine Providence is the
memorable act of consecration by which We Ourselves solemnly
dedicated Holy Church and the whole world to the spotless Heart of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.(125)
125.
Since in the course of this year there is completed, as We
mentioned above, the first hundred years since the Universal
Church, by order of Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius IX,
celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, We earnestly
desire, venerable brethren, that the memory of this centenary be
everywhere observed by the faithful in the making of public acts
of adoration, thanksgiving and expiation to the divine Heart of
Jesus. And though all Christian peoples will be linked by the
bonds of charity and prayer in common, ceremonies of Christian joy
and piety will assuredly be carried out with a special religious
fervor in that nation in which, according to the dispensation of
the divine Will, a holy virgin pointed the way and was the
untiring herald of that devotion.
126.
Meanwhile, refreshed by sweet hope and foreseeing already those
spiritual fruits which We are confident will spring up in
abundance in the Church from the devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus - provided it is correctly understood according to Our
explanation and actively put into practice - We make Our prayer to
God that He may graciously deign to assist these ardent desires of
Ours by the strong help of His grace. May it come about, by the
divine inspiration as a token of His favor, that out of the
celebration established for this year the love of the faithful may
grow daily more and more towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its
sweet and sovereign kingdom be extended more widely to all in
every part of the world: the kingdom "of truth and life; the
kingdom of grace and holiness; the kingdom of justice, love and
peace."(126)
127.
As a pledge of these favors with a full heart We impart to each
one of you, venerable brethren, together with the clergy and
faithful committed to your charge, to those in particular who by
their devoted labors foster and promote the devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, Our apostolic benediction.
Given
at Rome, at St. Peter's, the 15th of May, 1956, the eighteenth
year of Our Pontificate.
Endnotes:
1.
Is. 12:3. | 2. Jas. 1:17. | 3. Jn. 7:37-39. |
4. Cfr. Is. 12:3; Ex. 47:1-12; Zach. 13:1; Ex. 17:1-7; Num.
20:7-13; 1 Cor. 10:4; Apoc. 7:17, 22:1. | 5. Rom. 5:15. | 6. 1 Cor.
6:17. | 7. Jn. 4:10. | 8. Acts 4:12. | 9. Encl. "Annum
Sacrum," 25th May, 1899; Acta Leonis, vol. XIX, 1900, pp. 71,
77-79. | 10. Pius XI, Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor,"
8th May, 1928 A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 167. | 11. Cfr. Encl. "Sumni
Pontificatus," 20th October, 1939: A.A.S. XXXI, 1939, p. 415.
| 12. Cfr. A.A.S. XXXII, 1940, p. 170; XXXVII, 1945, pp. 263-264;
XL, 1948, p. 501; XLI, 1949, p. 331. | 13. Eph. 3:20-21. | 14. Is.
12:3. | 15. Council of Ephesus, can. 8; Cfr. Mansi, "Sacrorum
Conciliorum Ampliss. Collectio IV," 1083 C.; II Council of
Constantinople, can. 9; Cfr. Ibid. IX, 382 E. | 16. Cfr. Encl.
"Annum Sacrum": Acta Leonis, vol. XIX, 1900, p. 76. |
17. Cfr. Ex. 34:27-28. | 18. Deut. 6:4-6. | 19. St. Thomas, Sum.
Theol. II-II, q. 2, a. 7: ed. Leon., vol. VIII, 1895, p. 34. | 20.
Deut. 32:11. | 21. Os. 11:1, 3-4. 14:5-6. | 22. Is. 49:14-15. |
23. Cant. 2:2, 6:2, 8:6. | 24. Jn. 1:14. | 25. Jer. 31:3, 31,
33-34. | 26. Cfr. Jn. 1:29; 9:18-28, 10:1-17. | 27. Jn. 1:16-17. |
28. Jn. 21:20. | 29. Eph. 3:17-19. | 30. Sum. Theol. III, q. 48,
a. 2: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 464. | 31. Cfr. Encl. "Miserentissimus
Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 170. | 32. Eph. 2:4; Sum.
Theol. III, q. 46, a. 1 ad 3: ed. Leon., vol. XI, p. 436. | 33.
Eph. 3:18. | 34. Jn. 4:24. | 35. 2 Jn. 7. | 36. Cfr. Lk. 1:35. |
37. St. Leo the Great, Epist. dogm. 'Lectis dilectionis tuae' ad
Flavianum Const. Patr., 13 June, a. 449; Cfr. P.L. XIV, 763. | 38.
Council of Chalcedon, a. 451. | 39. Cfr. Mansi, Op. cit., VIII,
115B. | 40. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 15, a. 4; q. 18, a. 6: ed.
Leon., vol. X(1), 1903, pp. 189, 237. | 41. Cfr. I Cor. 1:23. | 42.
Heb. 2:11-14, 17-18. | 43. Apol. II, 13; P.G. VI, 465. | 44. Epist.
261, 3: P.G. XXXII, 972. | 45. "In loann.", Homil. 63,
2: P.G. LIX, 350. | 46. "De fide ad Gratianum," II, 7,
56: P.L. XVI, 594. | 47. Cfr. Super Mt. 26:27: P.L. XXVI, 205. |
48. Enarr. in Ps. LXXXVII, 3: P. L. XXXVII, 1111. | 49. "De
Fide Orth.," III, 6 P.G. XCIV, 1006. | 50. Ibid. III, 20: P.G.
XCIV, 1081. | 51. Sum. Theol. I-II, q. 48, a. 4: ed. Leon., vol.
VI, 1891, p. 306. | 52. Col. 2:9. | 53. Cfr. Sum Theol. III, q. 9
aa. 1-3: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 142. | 54. Cfr. Ibid. Ill,
q. 33, a. 2, ad 3m; q. 46, a: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, pp. 342,
433. | 55. Tit. 3:4. | 56. Mt. 27:50; Jn. 19:30. | 57. Eph. 2:7. |
58. Heb. 10:5-7, 10. | 59. Registr. epist., lib. IV, ep. 31, ad
Theodorum medicum: P.L. LXXVII, 706. | 60. Mk. 8:2. | 61. Mt.
23:37. | 62. Mt. 21:13. | 63. Mt. 26:39. | 64. Mt. 26:50; Lk.
22-48. | 65. Lk. 23:28, 31. | 66. Lk. 23:34. | 67. Mt. 27:46. |
68. Lk. 23:43. | 69. Jn. 19:28. | 70. Lk. 23:46. | 71. Lk. 22:15.
| 72. Lk. 22:19-20. | 73. Mal. 1:11. | 74. "De sancta
virginitate," VI:P.L. XL, 399. | 75. Jn. 15:13. | 76. 1 Jn.
3:16. | 77. Gal. 2:20. | 78. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 19, a. 1:
ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 329. | 79. Sum. Theol., Suppl., q.
42, a. 1. ad 3m: ed. Leon., vol. XII, 1906, p. 31. | 80. Hymn at
Vespers, Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. | 81. Sum. Theol.
III, q. 66, a. 3m: ed. Leon., vol XII, 1906, p. 65. | 82. Eph.
5:2. | 83. Eph. 4:8, 10. | 84. Jn. 14:16. | 85. Col. 2:3. | 86.
Rom. 8:35, 37-39. | 87. Eph. 5:25-27. | 88. Cfr. 1 Jn. 2:1. | 89.
Heb. 7:25. | 90. Heb. 5:7. | 91. Jn. 3:16. | 92. St. Bonaventure,
Opusc. X: "Vitis mystica," c. III, n. 5; "Opera
Omnia," Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) 1898, vol. VIII, p. 164.;
Cfr. Sum Theol. III, q. 54, a. 4:ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 513.
| 93. Rom. 8:32. | 94. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 48, a. 5: ed.
Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 467. | 95. Lk. 12:50. | 96. Jn. 20:28. |
97. Jn. 19:37; Cfr. Zach. 12:10. | 98. Cfr. Encl. "Miserentissimus
Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, pp. 167-168. | 99. Cfr. A.
Gardellini, "Decreta authentica," 1857, n. 4579. vol.
III, p. 174. | 100. Cfr. Decr. S.C. Rit., apud. N. Nilles,
"De rationibus festorum Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi
Cordis Mariae," 5a ed., Innsbruck, 1885, vol. I, p. 167. |
101. Eph. 3:14, 16-19. | 102. Tit. 3:4. | 103. Jn. 3:17. | 104. Jn.
4:23-24. | 105. Innocent XI, Apostolic Constitution "Coelestis
Pater," 19th Nov., 1687; Bullarium Romanum, Rome, 1734, vol.
VIII, p. 443. | 106. Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 81, a. 3 ad 3m: ed.
Leon., vol. IX, 1897, p. 180. | 107. Jn. 14:6. | 108. Jn. 13:34,
15:12. | 109. Jer. 31:31. | 110. "Comment, in Evang. S. Ioan.,"
c. XIII, lect. VII, 3: ed. Parmae, 1860, vol. X, p. 541. | 111.
Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 82, a. 1: ed. Leon., vol. IX, 1897, p. 187.
| 112. Ibid. I, q. 38, a. 2: ed. Leon., vol. IV, 1888, p. 393. |
113. Mk. 12:30; Mt. 22:37. | 114. Cfr. Leo XIII, Encl. "Annum
Sacrum: Acta Leonis," vol. XIX, 1900, p. 71 sq; Decree of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites, 28th June, 1899, in Decr. Auth. III,
n. 3712; Encl. Miserentissimus Redemptor: A.A.S. 1928, p. 177 sq.;
Decr. S.C. Rit., 29 Jan. 1929: A.A.S. XXI, 1929, p. 77. | 115. Lk.
15:22. | 116. Exposit. in Evang. sec. Lucam, 1, X, n. 175: P.L.
XV, 1942. | 117. Cfr. Sum Theol. II-II, q. 34, a. 2: ed. Leon.,
vol. VIII, 1895, p. 274. | 118. Mt. 24:12. | 119. Cfr. Encl.
"Miserentissimus Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 166. |
120. Is. 32:17. | 121. Encl. "Annum Sacrum: Acta Leonis,"
vol. XIX, 1900, p. 79; Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor":
A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 167. | 122. "Litt. Apost. quibus
Archisodalitas a Corde Eucharistico Jesu ad S. Ioachim de Urbe
erigitur," 17th Feb., 1903; Acta Leonis, vol. XXII, 1903, p.
116. | 123. St. Albert the Great, "De Eucharistia,"
dist. Vl, tr. 1., c. 1: Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, vol. XXXVIII,
Paris, 1890, p. 358. | 124. Encl. "Tametsi: Acta Leonis,"
vol. XX, 1900, p. 303. | 125. Cfr. A.A.S. XXXIV, 1942, p. 345 sq.
| 126. From the Roman Missal, Preface of Christ the King.
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