Christ the Cornerstone

Jesus offers his love, mercy to calm our troubled hearts

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me” (Jn 14:1).

The publication date for this column is Friday, May 5, the first Friday of this month. First Fridays are traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, one of the most popular devotions for Catholics and members of several other Christian denominations.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart calls our attention to the humanity of Jesus, his compassion, mercy and unconditional love for us in spite of our self-centeredness.

Jesus was the most perfectly human person who ever lived. (His mother Mary, the Immaculate Conception, was a close second, but even she did not reach the degree of perfection found in her divine Son.) We who are Christians acknowledge Jesus Christ as fully human—like us in all things but sin—and we strive to imitate him in our thoughts, words and actions.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart also invites us to meditate on our Lord’s divinity. He is not just a compassionate, loving and inspiring human being. He is God incarnate. His love and mercy are boundless and everlasting. What’s more, we believe that as God, Jesus does not simply have love. He is love.

Before he was elected as pope and chose the name Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote a wonderful book titled Introduction to Christianity, a series of reflections on the substance of what Christians believe. Reflecting on the parable of the lost sheep in Chapter 15 of St. Luke’s Gospel, the future pope offered this most insightful reflection on who God is:

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” [Lk 15:7]. This parable, in which Jesus depicts and justifies his activity and his task as the emissary of God, involves not only the relations between God and man, but also the question of who God himself is. … The God whom we encounter here … has emotions as a man does, he rejoices, he seeks, he waits, he goes to meet. He is not the unfeeling geometry of the universe, neutral justice standing above things undisturbed by a heart and its emotions; he has a heart; he stands there like a person who loves, with all the capriciousness of someone who loves.

God is not absent or remote from us. He is not uncaring or indifferent to us. He has a heart, a sacred, holy heart, and his love for us is unconditional in spite of the fact that we too often reject his love and mercy.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus does not take place outside of the Church’s liturgy and sacraments. It supplements and supports them. In fact, authentic devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart can deepen and enrich our love for Christ’s most intimate gift of himself to us in the Eucharist. Similarly, it is our love for Jesus that prompts us to seek his forgiveness freely given in the sacrament of penance.

A popular prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus expresses the ways in which this devotion is integral to how we live as Christians. In this prayer, we humbly ask:

O most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen. (Priests of the Sacred Heart)

We may turn to Jesus, true God and true man, in any situation that we wish to receive the blessings that flow from his holy heart. As the risen Lord told his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1). Our faith in God, who loves and protect us, who comfort us and fills our troubled hearts with joy, assures us that God is with us. He invites us to live in and for him and to be wholly obedient to his will for us.

On this First Friday, let’s open our hearts to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. If we let him, Jesus will calm our troubled hearts and free us from all our anxiety and fear. And let us pray, in the words of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, “Lord Jesus, let my heart never rest until it finds you, who are its center, its love, and its happiness.” †