How to Love Love Himself

"Tell me about your relationship with Jesus’ Sacred Heart"

“And I will entrust your intentions to the Lord’s Sacred Heart” was how a friend closed a letter I received last Winter. While I felt a sense of gratitude for his kindness and piety, I was unsure what his words meant or how that promise would manifest itself. At the time I ignored my confusion, writing his words off as an idiosyncratic devotion existing in the various realms of Catholic tradition, but in retrospect, I consider it safe to say this was rooted in one thing: I did not know the Lord’s Sacred Heart -- not intimately, at least. 

It is almost humorous that, of all aspects of the Lord I could overlook, it was His heart. As we all know, the heart is the most familiar bodily organ, pumping our blood that is rich with salt, water, oxygen, and other substances necessary for proper functioning. No human can survive without one’s heart in the physical sense, and I will venture to say that we cannot live (spiritually, that is) without the love of our Lord’s Sacred Heart, either. Since I am long overdue for this relationship in my prayer life, I find June to be an apt opportunity to remedy this oversight. Let’s explore the ways in which we can encounter our Lord’s Sacred Heart in our lives. 

Step one, scripture: how often does the Bible refer to the heart? In the poetic sense, numerous mentions of our hearts as the center of love and emotion pervade both the Old and New Testaments. We are instructed to direct our hearts toward unceasing love for our neighbors and our God; we are comforted that the Lord will heal the brokenhearted; and we are warned that His teachings will perpetually elude us unless our hearts remain receptive to Him (Psalm 51: 10, Psalm 34:18, Mark 6:52). This language is not exclusive to just His flock. For instance, in Mark 8:1-10, we hear of a crowd who had been following Jesus for three days without food, to which He responds, “‘my heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they…have nothing to eat.’” How amazing is it that our Lord’s compassion is so inexhaustible that He cared for His followers’ needs before anyone else, including themselves? Further, in Matthew 9:35-38, we hear that Jesus’s heart is “moved with pity” upon seeing the crowds, for He recognized them as sheep lost without a shepherd. Note that in both scenes, Jesus directly speaks to His disciples. This is extraordinary because it shows Him instructing the future church leaders on how to love others and to extend this passion to all inhabitants of the Earth; this light will grow within ourselves if we become familiar with His Sacred Heart, as well.  

Next, the saints. I am partial to St. Catherine of Siena famously calling God a “divine madman,” eternally enamored with what He had made. This label compares well with the testimonies of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom the Lord confessed that He could no longer hold back the fire of love in His heart. We have all felt love before. For eros (romantic love), the intense pulsating of our heart, combined with the rush of adrenaline, makes it hard to hold back from the object(s) of our affection! And then agape (Christ-like love) allows us to look past the many flaws our siblings in Christ may bear and help each other to reach eternity in Heaven. The intense experience of loving another consumes us humans entirely and improves how we act and perceive – so can you imagine how it must have felt for the Son of God, burning with passion for each one of His children? St. Catherine’s words were prophetic, to say the least.  

But how do we experience this love today -- without the helpful apparitions St. Margaret was gifted with --, you may ask? I find St. Peter Julian Eymard’s argument that it is present in the “Sacrament of our altars” convincing. That sacrifice puts the love of His Sacred Heart on full display, and at each communion, we have the honor to let it physically remain within ourselves. When you next receive the Blessed Host, I invite you to ask the Lord to let the love held in his heart enter yours. Since this magnificent, incomprehensible force exists in the Blessed Host, that means it is alive within those who receive His body, too. Therefore, another way to see the Sacred Heart is to foster a contemplative outlook. Appreciate the reflection of our Lord’s infinite love in every person you meet, for “next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses” (C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”). 


Name: Nora Shanahan
Year: Second-Year in SoN
Hometown: Rocky Mount, VA 
Fun fact: I am the sixth of eight children and love to bake!