Encyclical of
Pope Pius XII On Devotion To The Sacred Heart
May 15, 1956
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, jealousy is hard as hell, the lamps
thereof are lamps of fire and flames."(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, not as in the past by the
blood of goats and calves, but by the most precious Blood of Him Whom these
same innocent animals, devoid of reason, had already prefigured: "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; holocausts for sin did not
please thee. Then said I, "Behold I come"; in the head of the book it
is written of Me, "that I should do thy will, O God!"'. . .In which
will we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ
once."(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 Pasch 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 am I straitened 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 for ever 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.
PIUS XII, POPE
FOOTNOTES
1. Is. 12:3.
2. Jas. 1:17.
3. Jn. 7:37-39. (Translator's
note: In this passage, Pope Pius XII uses the punctuation favored by St. Irenaeus
and St. Cyprian and some other ancient authorities. The translation therefore
follows this and not the Douay version.)
4. Cfr. Is. 12:3; Ex. 47:1-12; Zach. 13:1; Ex. 17:1-7; Num. 20:7-13; I Cor.
10:4; Apoc. 7:17, 22:1.
5. Rom. 5:15.
6. I 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., Vlll,
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. I 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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