Readings: Deuteronomy 7:6-11; Psalm 103; 1 John 4:7-16; Matthew 11:25-30
It can be revealed now, some years after her death (rip), that my mother was a Jesuit agent. Every month a small package was delivered to her house, containing 10-12 copies of a little red book which she delivered to friends and neighbours whose subscriptions to it she also collected each year. The little red book was not the thoughts of Chairman Mao but the Sacred Heart Messenger, a monthly periodical produced by the Irish Jesuits. It contained articles of religious interest, current affairs, devotional material and letters from readers telling of graces they had received through their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Although that devotion in its modern form dates from just a few centuries ago, the biblical and theological foundations for devotion to the human heart of Jesus go back to the beginning of Christianity, and even beyond, into the Old Testament, in a kind of prophetic anticipation.
Today's first reading, for example, speaks of the heart of God, how it is set on the people he chose as his own. Already the notes of tenderness and mercy are there. Israel is first chosen precisely because it is a nation that evokes compassion and pity. The Lord's kindness is everlasting, says the psalm, in fact that kindness is abounding, so that God deals with people graciously and courteously.
Inevitably there is a reading also from the Johannine writings of the New Testament, where much attention is given to the theme of love. 'Love is of God', today's reading begins and it ends with the simple declaration, 'God is love'. The origin of all love is in God, in the love that God is and in how that love has been manifested in the human heart of Jesus Christ.
The gospel reading is also well known, a passage from the Gospel of Matthew which speaks of the intimacy there is between the Father and the Son, an intimacy into which we are invited. The condition of entry? To be meek and humble of heart as Jesus is.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on the cross opened in love to the world, means devotion to the divine humanity of our Saviour. Does it refer to Jesus in his humanity primarily or in his divinity? A famous banner on view in Dublin streets during the Eucharistic Congress of 1932 read 'God bless the Sacred Heart!' It seems to opt for the humanity of Jesus as the place of that heart, his human love and tenderness. But of course it must refer also to the 'heart of God' which is revealed in Jesus, through his human love.
My mother, along with many of her generation, had great devotion to the Sacred Heart. The family home was consecrated early on to the Sacred Heart, long before many other things could be done to the house. It is a way of staying close to God in tenderness, entrusting everything to his heart's care.
Catherine of Siena speaks of God seeing us first in his own heart, falling in love with us there, and deciding we were too good not to be real! So God created us and created us to share one day his own life of love. It hardly needs saying that Catherine was not a Jesuit but she cheers on the sons and daughters of Saint Ignatius as they promote this devotion. So too Catherine and all the other saints of the tender love of the divine humanity, watch over all agents and messengers who distribute the little red book that continues to celebrate the graces flowing from the pierced heart of Jesus.
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