Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy 59 The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy According to the popes of the last one hundred years, there is no devotion more important to the life o f the Church than devotion to the Heart o f Jesus. For example, in 1899 Pope Leo XIII, in what he called “the greatest act o f my pontificate,” consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart on the threshold of the new century, and he wrote o f the Sacred Heart as “the symbol and sensible image o f the infinite love of Jesus Christ.” 1 In 1928, in his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI taught that devotion to the Heart of Jesus is “the summa­ ry of our religion,” which, if practiced, “will most surely lead us to know intimately Jesus Christ, and will cause our hearts to love more tenderly and to imitate Him more generously.”2 Then in 1956, in his famous encyclical on the Sacred Heart Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII was even more effusive than his predecessors in praise o f this devotion: 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.3 Consequently, the honor 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 o f 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 o f Christ.4 After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI pleaded with the Church not to forget the devotion to the Sacred Heart. In his apostolic letter o f 1965, Investigabiles Divitias Christi, he wrote: This, therefore, seems to us to be the most suitable ideal: that devotion to the Sacred Heart - which, We are grieved to say, has suffered somewhat in the estimation o f some persons, - now reflourish daily more and more. Let it be esteemed by all as an excellent and acceptable form o f true piety.5 In a follow-up letter to the heads o f the religious orders, Paul VI was even more emphatic: