In June 1965, the Church of the Gesù in Rome, the Jesuits’ mother church, celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart with the newly elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus presiding. The 31st General Congregation, which had elected Pedro Arrupe as general, was still in progress as was the Second Vatican Council. It was a period of turmoil, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. In the homily at the feast celebrate appearing below, Arrupe acknowledges that in part because of the “distress and disquiet” from this turmoil “there is today in some the tendency to disparage the cult of the Sacred Heart, or at least to consider it less opportune for our times.” And yet, Arrupe argues that devotion to the Sacred Heart can provide the unity the world so desires. Before it ended in 1966, the 31st General Congregation promulgated Decree 15, “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” which stated that the Sacred Heart was at the center of the Jesuits’ “spiritual lives.”
For more sources from Arrupe, please visit The Arrupe Collection.
The Holy Father Paul VI, the best interpreter of the wishes of our Lord, in February of this year addressed a letter to all the Bishops to remind them of the second centenary of the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart. Here is a paragraph of this letter which shows the Pope’s mind:
“It is our wish that the deep and hidden doctrinal foundations that throw light on the infinite treasures of the love of the Heart of Christ be explained to all categories of the faithful in the most suitable and complete manner.”
In fact, there is today in some the tendency to disparage the cult of the Sacred Heart, or at least to consider it less opportune for our times.
But if we listen to the words of the Pope carefully, we shall see precisely that he stresses the opportuneness of this cult for the Catholics of today. Pius XII, repeating the words of the great pontiff Leo XIII, called this cult, “a most acceptable form of piety,” containing a powerful remedy for the healing of those very evils which today bring distress and disquiet, more acutely and widely than ever, to the individual and the whole human race. Pius XII did not hesitate to state that in this devotion to the Sacred Heart are to be found “a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a guide to the most perfect life.”
1. Christ is the Center
Jesus, in St. Paul’s expression is the center of all creation: heaven and earth and sea, angels and men. He is the center of all and therefore all things are held together in him. But searching more closely still, we shall find that in Christ himself there is something which is “central,” that brings together everything that is in him; a center toward which all the points of the circumference converge; a center from which all the lines start to the periphery. This core is his love, symbolized in his Heart.
The love of the Word for the Father is the center of his divine life, the love that brings about the incarnation. The Word becomes Jesus the Savior and takes a heart of flesh like ours. The infinite love is to be found in a small human heart; there it finds an abode, an organ of flesh, a heart full of affection and feeling.
When Paul was announcing the great synthesis of his apostolate saying, “the love of Christ overwhelms us,” he was not primarily referring to the love which Paul had for Christ but rather to the love with which Christ loved Paul. The love of Christ had taken possession of his heart. Thus he could say that it was not Paul who lived but Christ who lived in Paul, Christ who loved and suffered in him.
The same happens in each member of the mystical Body of Christ who lives his faith. In him lives the love of Christ who continues loving the Father and men, who continues working and sacrificing himself. The Heart of Christ is always the center of every Christian life.
2. In order to attain unity
These reflections may help to convince ourselves of what the Pope says about the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as one most suitable for our times.
The world of today tends to unity. There are groups and associations of a national character, of a European, intercontinental and even world character. In his Christmas message to the world of 1964, Pope Paul VI spoke of the evil of classism, so stringent and oppressive in contemporary society. He spoke also of party spirit and factiousness which oppose ideologies, methods, interest and organizations in the very tissue of the community. On the one hand, these complex and very extensive social phenomena unite men who have common interests; but on the other hand, they create insuperable gaps between the various categories. They convert their systematic opposition into a way of life that gives a gloomy and embittered aspect of discord and hatred to our society which is thoroughly developed from the technical and economic point of view.
All these aspirations of mankind to unite in spite of all barriers and dividing walls, because it feels itself to be one in its origin, nature and rights, are aspirations profoundly Christian. They find, however, and they will ever find insuperable obstacles, until the point is reached when all share in some manner that catalyzing element which is the love of Christ. For this love impels each one to give himself to the community in a brotherly gift, and assures that each one receive the gifts of the others. Only in the strength of the Heart of Christ is each one of us able to overcome selfishness in favor of the community.
3. To glorify God through Science
The world of today stands in need of the Heart of Christ for its unprecedented achievements in the technological field.
The discoverers of new worlds have full right to be proud of their conquests; but they are mistaken when they try to divorce science from religion, when they separate God from the beauty of the world he has created. When science and technology take this road, they call heaven’s curse upon themselves.
From whom shall we, puny men moulded from dust, learn to be humble, to maintain ourselves in the truth? From the Heart of Christ. “In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” and yet he said, “I do not seek my glory … My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” Jesus, man, in whose hands “all authority in heaven and earth” (Mt 28: 18) had been placed, made himself small before his heavenly Father and was pleased to acknowledge that all he had he had received from him.
Jesus Christ was not in need of forcing himself to live only for his Father’s glory. His humility sprang from his Heart, from his love for the Father.
Following Jesus Christ along this path of love and truth, man can pursue his scientific research and glory in his technological conquest with freedom and security. Through them he will glorify his heavenly Father, and his discoveries will never turn into tools of hatred and destruction.
4. To have an incalculable source of energy
The world of today, and specially our youth, feels intoxicated with the new wine of the atomic force. They exult in the thought that in their hands they have an almost unlimited source of energy. We have therefore a reason, my dear brothers, to say that today more than ever before we need that the Heart of Jesus remain with us or return to our world. And the reason is precisely this: we live in the atomic age. It is as though an insane brat had got hold of a loaded pistol.
Journalists have tried to give prominence these days to a period of my life when Providence willed that I should find myself in the zone blasted by the atomic bomb of Hiroshima and that I should escape unhurt.
Well then, I remember that when I was still under the terrible impression of the catastrophe, in a conversation with some young students we were commenting the power of the weapon employed, and calculated the thousands of casualties in our neighborhood and those which might be expected as a consequence. I remember how, after a pessimistic diagnosis by the youths, a spontaneous observation occurred to me which impressed them profoundly: “And after all, my dear friends, in spite of this new powerful weapon and any other that may still come, you must know that we have a power much greater than the atomic energy: we have the Heart of Christ. But while the atomic energy is destined to destroy and atomize everything, in the Heart of Christ we have an invincible weapon whose power will destroy every evil and unite the minds and hearts of the whole of mankind in one central bond, his love and the love of the Father.”
5. In order to feel oneself personalized
Another characteristic feature of the modern world is the huge masses of human beings, the large and ever growing centers of population in all the continents. All are classified and categorized by electric calculators, all are filed according to their qualifications and capabilities. But meanwhile the individual is swallowed up by the crowd. Today, while triumph of personality is proclaimed, the dignity of the person is trampled underfoot, the individual is just a number to the planners, reduced to an anonymous figure, worse than a unit in the army.
In this world situation we need that Jesus Christ return to earth once more and that meeting each one of us he extend to us his hand of a friend, and calling you and me by name, tell us: “Before the world was, I knew you. I loved you in particular, and I gave my life on the cross for you.” This thought filled Paul’s heart with enthusiastic wonder and made him exclaim: He loved me and gave himself for me.” What more can anyone of us wish for? Even if the world forgets me, there is a God who thinks of me, knows that I exist and wishes me well!
6. In order to win true freedom
People today tend to free themselves, as much as possible, from all constraining laws. They believe that independence is something sacred, the greatest of all goods. Very frequently youth wants to get rid of disciplinary measures and of external regulations. The reason they give is that rules are an obstacle to the development of their own personality. Would that the interior spirit were sufficient to put a check to our inordinate tendencies! And that our passions were so mastered by reason that they no longer needed the help of external discipline!
Be that as it may, let us have recourse to the Heart of Christ in whom we shall find the secret of our full personality joined to a full interior life. We also may take as our only norm that well-known saying of St. Augustine, “Love and do as you please” (Ama et fac quod vis). The only condition is to have penetrated deeply into the Heart of Jesus, to love him so much that we do not think of ourselves, to love him to such an extent that we are prepared to lose everything for his sake.
7. To remain firm in the midst of the storm
Finally, another wound that afflicts the world today is instability. If we look around we shall see that everything is in a fluid state. In Europe and outside Europe, in the East and in the West, instability is the bane of many governments and political parties, fluctuation is the law in the money exchange and in the market. Changeable is the rhythm of demand and supply.
But that is not all. The world today is afraid of the instability of its own ideas and beliefs. Many people who are at the helm of human activities and trends feel uncertain about the validity of principles, rights and duties, particularly in the field of social justice. Even the philosophical structure of thought is tottering and becomes skeptical and agnostic.
Repercussions of this instability are felt in the catholic field as well where one can perceive much vacillation and uncertainty even in private and professional life. Some would like to do away with the rigidity of dogmas…
Isn’t this a sign that we need Jesus more than at any time in the past? Only he stands firm, indestructible upon the rock, while everything around him wavers in constant restlessness. Our Savior has ever remained constant in his statements of Yes or No. Through Peter he continues today to impart a feeling of security to the poor human mind, a fragile little barque tossed in the stormy ocean. We must give our minds a sure criterion. We need a source of knowledge which is ever fresh and young, today and tomorrow as it was in the days of St. Paul—the science of the love of Christ.
Paul wanted to communicate to his Christians a re-assuring certitude that will never lose sight of the love of Jesus for us. Some of the faithful in the church of Ephesus were attracted to some strange ideas and mysterious concepts. Paul tells them forcefully that there is one knowledge that transcends all others—the knowledge of the love of Christ, on which the stability of human thought depends.
This is a love without bounds, because the love of the Heart of Christ is infinite in depth, in its height and breadth; there are no boundaries of time or place, or limitation of persons.
This is, my dear brothers, where I invite you to fix your minds and especially your hearts; in the love of Christ we shall find stability in life, the happiness of feeling ourselves loved, security on the way. These blessings will surely be ours if in following Jesus we are led by her, who is the Mother of the eternal Wisdom, the Daughter of Love and the Lady of the Way.
Original Source (English translation):
Arrupe, Pedro. In Him Alone Is Our Hope: Texts on the Heart of Christ (1965–1983): Selected Letters and Addresses—IV, ed. Jerome Aixala. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1984, “A Devotion for Our Times,” pg. 111–117.