Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

Again, our Lord cried out on the Feast of the Tabernacles: “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink ... as the scripture has said ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). In the Heart of Jesus, therefore, we can find rest for our soul’s weariness, and refreshment for our soul’s thirst. All this was made manifest on the Cross, when His side was opened by the lance, and out of His Heart flowed streams of water and blood (John 19:34), symbolic of all the graces of Baptism and the Eucharist. Many great saints have had a special devotion to the Heart of Jesus, including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, St. Lutgard, St. Gertrude the Great, St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis De Sales, St. John Eudes, St. Claude De La Colombière, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat and Bl. Dina Bélanger. The greatest impetus toward the spread of this devotion, however, came from the apparitions of our Lord Jesus Himself to St. Margaret MaryAlacoque in the 1670’s. To her the glorified Jesus unveiled His tender, burning love for souls, and through her He asked for the establishment of the annual liturgical Feast of the Sacred Heart, as well as devotional practices such as the Holy Hour, the First Friday Communions, and the veneration of the image of His loving Heart. By these means our Lord intend- ed to rekindle the fire of love in the hearts of the faithful, in a mod- ern world in which the hearts of many were growing cold. Hence, rooted in Scripture, the delight of many saints, and given the highest endorsement by the popes again and again, it is clear that the devotion to the Heart of Jesus — especially to the living Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist — is vital to the life and spiritual health of the Catholic Church . Simply put: a living body needs a living heart, and the Church, the Body of Christ, has its own living heart; we have been given the Heart of Jesus Christ, the Head of the Body, as our Heart too, the living source of all our spiritual refreshment and peace. In the twentieth century, however, from out of the heart of the Polish nation, our Lord has poured another fresh stream of devo- 105 The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy