Featuring Fr. Chris Alar, MIC! The United States has been formally consecrated to Our Lady several times in our history (our patroness, after all, is the Immaculate Conception), but this will be the first formal consecration of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Papal encouragement Many popes have lauded the practice of consecrating individuals, families, and even whole nations to the Sacred Heart. In an encyclical instituting the Solemnity of Christ the King, for example, Pope Pius XI commended the “pious custom” of consecrating nations to the Sacred Heart as a way to recognize the kingship of Christ. For this special consecration of the USA, our bishops stated that “Through this act … [we] seek to renew devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to recognize the kingship of Christ, perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel.” In other words, this consecration has both a spiritual and a social purpose. In my new book from Marian Press, Our Light in the Darkness: The Sacred Heart of Jesus, I explain how these two aspects of devotion to the Heart of our Savior are inseparable: The Merciful Heart of Jesus is not only a refiner’s fire of Divine Love for the sanctification of individual souls; it is also a burning furnace of charity in which all families, all communities, all nations — indeed, the entire world — can one day be transformed into the new “civilization of love” repeatedly called for by the See of St. Peter. Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, a number of (what were at that time) largely Catholic countries consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart by solemn acts of their own national governments: for example, Ireland, Ecuador, San Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, Nicaragua, Poland, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Pope Leo XIII consecrated the whole world to the Heart of Jesus in 1899, at the dawn of the new century. This intention to dedicate all nations to the service of Jesus Christ is in full accord with the Gospels, especially Matthew 28:18–20, in which the Risen Lord says to His disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Of course, the conversion, renewal, and sanctification of souls in the love of Jesus Christ, to prepare us for eternal life, always comes first in the Church’s mission, just as the first of our Lord’s two Great Commandments is to love God above all things. But Jesus also said, “And a second [commandment] is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). The two are inseparable. You cannot really love the God of mercy if you do not love all His other children, made in His image and bought with His own human Blood on the Cross. Witness of the Saints Jesus sought to pour out upon humanity all the treasures of grace that flow from His Sacred Heart, and to inspire Catholics to work to establish the social reign of His Heart over families and nations everywhere. The saints have always understood this, beginning of course with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673, when our Lord appeared, and she saw “this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal. It had its adorable wound and To order Our Light in the Darkness: The Sacred Heart of Jesus by Dr. Robert Stackpole (Product code: B70-SHJ), visit ShopMercy.org.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==