Heart of Jesus

LOVE INCARNATE: THE HEART OF JESUS

What is the relationship between the Sisters of the Visitation and the devotion to the Heart of Jesus? What role did the Visitation sister, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, play in the spread of the devotion to the pierced Heart of Jesus?

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was the Visitation nun to whom Our Lord entrusted the mission of spreading the 'good news' of the great love of His Heart for humanity. She was a woman who, frankly speaking, was a psychological disaster when she entered the Visitation monastery in Paray le Monial. Raised in a dysfunctional extended family, she may have turned to religious life as to a refuge. But since she was totally responsive to God's transforming love, Margaret Mary achieved wholeness and holiness by the time God called her to eternal life. Therein lies her real sanctity. Although her own writings frequently exhibit an extremely flawed self-image, she may be a saint for our times since many people today suffer the effects of present and/or past living in dysfunctional surroundings.

Margaret Mary was fascinated by the legacy of Francis and Jane and must have pondered many hours over their letters that alluded to remaining at the foot of the cross or within the pierced heart of Jesus. Being like clay in the hands of the potter, God could refashion her brokenness into the likeness of Jesus and then grace her with the mission of being the apostle of His love to our times -- times marred by the materialism, greed, and violence of secularization.

Then from 1673 through 1675, Margaret Mary experienced visions of our Lord who showed her His heart as a burning furnace of love for humanity. Jesus asked her to offer a weekly hour of prayer in reparation for the sins of humanity, especially the societal sins against justice and human rights. Our Lord also made twelve promises to those devoted to his heart. Finally, Jesus asked that the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be dedicated to honor His Sacred Heart.

Margaret Mary was not the first to speak of devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Roots of the Sacred Heart tradition date back to the reflections of the fathers of the Church on the humanity of Christ. Then in medieval times, the suffering that Jesus endured during his passion became Christendom's own passion; witness the stigmata of Francis of Assisi or the revelations of Julian of Norwich. By the 13th century, women mystics like Gertrude and Mechtilde had zeroed in on the heart of Jesus as being the source of grace and mercy. But Margaret Mary did have a unique contribution? Hers was a mission to the universal Church that was accomplished with the aid of St. Claude de la Colombiere and the Jesuits. This mission was greater than the establishment of a feast. The message of Paray-le-Monial was to be an antidote, not only to the rigid, loveless Jansenism of the late 17th century but even more so for us, to the growing secularization and godlessness characteristic of our times.

Still, Karl Rahner recognized that "almost all the thought and imagery of Margaret Mary's visions can be found in the traditions of the Visitation." Proof for this statement can be found in excerpts from four letters written by Francis to Jane that describe the importance of devotion to the heart of Jesus in the Visitation charism. In April 1610 about two months before the founding of Visitation, Francis wrote to Jane,

"I firmly believe we shall no longer live in ourselves but that our heart, intention and trust will make us abide forever in our Savior's pierced side; for without Him, we not only cannot, but we could not, and would not do anything whatsoever. Everything in Him, everything by Him, everything with Him, everything for Him, He is all!"

Later Francis said that the Visitation sisters are to be living holocausts, offering themselves to God on the altar of Calvary to serve unceasingly Jesus Christ Crucified. Theirs was to be a hidden, interior self-discipline of the heart because as Francis said,

" The heart is the source of our actions. Therefore, I give you the motto 'Live Jesus!' As our beloved Jesus lives in your heart, so too will he live in your conduct and he will be revealed by your eyes, mouth, hands, and everything. With St. Paul you can say, I live no longer I but Christ lives in me." (Gal. 2:20)

Then in a letter written to Jane in 1613, Francis said,

"May the grace and peace of the Holy Spirit always be in the center of your heart. Put your own dear heart in our Savior's pierced side, unite it with that King of hearts who reigns there as from a royal throne to receive the homage and obedience of every other heart, and keeps open house so that everyone can come and speak to Him."

Finally, Francis gave the Sisters of the Visitation the heart of Jesus as their coat of arms. He wrote to Jane de Chantal

"God sent me the thought during the night that our house of the Visitation is, by his grace, noble and important enough to have its own coat of arms.....So I have thought, my dear Mother, if you agree, we should take as our coat of arms a single heart pierced by two arrows and encircled in a crown of thorns; the heart is to hold and support a cross which is to surmount it and the holy names of Jesus and Mary are to be engraved on the heart....for our little Congregation is really the work of the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Our dying Savior gave birth to us from the wound of His Sacred Heart."

These quotations indicate how fundamental to Salesian spirituality is the remaining within the pierced side or heart of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Like Mary, the Visitation sisters are called to be compassionate intercessors for those suffering in our world today. From your own life experiences you know that love sweetens even the most painful ordeals. If you are a parent, you may recall sleepless nights spent with colicky babies. Love made you willing to pay that price. In Gethsemane, Jesus was needy and burdened by the sins of humanity, He begged the apostles to watch and pray one hour with Him. And though they loved Him, they failed. Jesus accepted that. He has repeated that invitation down through the centuries. Margaret Mary heard it. You are hearing it too through the above quotations. How are you called to minister to the suffering Jesus in our world today? By prayer? By sacrifice? By ministry?

In the mind of Francis, this emblem signified the Sisters' vocation to remain near Jesus on Calvary and to be daughters of prayer for the needs of the world. Or in other words the Visitation Sisters were to be a gentle presence in a broken and sometimes violent world. Are you too being called to be a gentle presence in your own world of family, of neighborhood, of parish, or of community?