THE SACRED HEART

REDEEMING LOVE

To celebrate the Heart of Christ means to go to the inner center of the Person of the Savior, the center which the Bible identifies as His Heart, the seat of the love that has redeemed the world.

"ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM"

If the human heart is really an unfathomable mystery known only to God, how much more sublime is the Heart of Jesus...? ...We find in the Heart of Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and the whole fullness of divinity.

A NEW, FAITHFUL HEART

To save man, the victim of his own disobedience, God wanted to give him a "new heart" that would be faithful to His loving will (cf. Jer 31: 33; Ez 36: 26; Ps 50: [51] 12).

"THE HOLY SPIRIT'S MASTERPIECE"

This heart is the Heart of Jesus, the Holy Spirit's masterpiece, which began to beat in Mary's virginal womb and was pierced by the spear as Jesus hung on the Cross, becoming for all an inexhaustible source of eternal life. That heart is now a pledge of hope for every man and woman.

"LEARN FROM ME ..."

"In the Heart of Christ, man's heart learns to know the genuine and unique meaning of his life and his destiny, to understand the value of an authentically Christian life, to keep himself from certain perversions of the human heart and to unite the filial love for God with the love of neighbor" (Letter to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 10/5/86).

"... FOR I AM GENTLE AND HUMBLE OF HEART" (MT 11:29)

How necessary for humanity today is the message that flows from contemplation of the Heart of Christ! ... Where else ... can humanity find the reserves of gentleness and forgiveness so needed to heal the conflicts that bloody them?

"THE ONLY WAY OUT"

I want to entrust to the merciful Heart of Jesus all who live in the Holy Land: Jews, Christians and Muslims. That Heart, deeply scorned, never nursed sentiments of hatred or revenge, but asked forgiveness for His executioners; that Heart points to the only way out of the spiral of violence: the way of pacification of souls, reciprocal understanding and reconciliation.

"TRUE REPARATION"

"The true reparation asked by the Heart of the Savior will come when the civilization of love, the Kingdom of the Heart of Christ, can be built upon the ruins heaped up by hatred and violence" (Letter to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 10/5/86).

(Sources: Angelus Message 6/23/02 and Message, dated 5/9/02, to President, Bishops' Conference of Columbia, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the consecration of Columbia to the Sacred Heart)