SACRED HEART TALK 2020: Priests of the Sacred Heart (3)

Hello and welcome to the third and last of these talks concerning the Sacred Heart in which I want to consider how we’re called to be Priests of the Sacred Heart.

One of the important purposes of the priesthood, of course, is to share with others something of the love of God – to help them consider that Love and to grow in their free gift of themselves to that Love, and to do that we need to be growing in that love.  In his gospel St. John records, of course, that triple question Jesus asked Peter: “Do you love me – love me more than these?”  (Jn. 21:15).  He wasn’t speaking of sentimental love, but agape love, love which is costly. He wanted to get Peter to consider in depth – in the depths of his heart – that love which the image of the Sacred Heart reveals.  It’s this love which needs to animate the vocation of every priest and we need to hear Jesus saying to us: “Do you love me – more than these?”  It’s the question that needs to refresh our vocation and to which we need to constantly return.

It’s the question reflected in the image of the Sacred Heart and is one of the reasons why it can be of great benefit to everyone, not least to priest.  We all know the importance of images – how they can speak more powerfully than words – and, as we know, the image of the heart speaks across religions, cultures and ages.  Whether on a heart on a Valentine’s card or one made with our hands, it has a warm sentimental feel; which is the difference between those romantic hearts and the Sacred Heart.  For the Sacred Heart portrays the cost of Jesus’ love shown in the way this Heart is illustrated with symbols of the Passion, so let’s consider them for they reveal the depths of Christ’ love, a love which is of far greater importance than the fuzzy glow that can come with a Valentine.

THE BLOOD-FILLED HEART

Firstly, it is a heart pumping with blood, the one organ which enables the whole body to live.  Unseen, but not unheard, it works away 24/7 for the whole of our time on earth – we could manage without many of our body parts, but not without our heart and it’s that unseen beat of the heart which needs to animate our vocation.

THE PIERCED HEART

Then there’s that matter of the blood with is shown, dripping from a wound. That makes it clear how the Heart of Jesus, like that of His Mother, was pierced; hers by a sword, his by a lance – the holy lance of the soldier, St. Longinus – as he hung on the Cross.  The lance pierced through His side into His Heart, into what this drawing by St. Margaret Mary made clear was a reservoir of caritas, love, from which flowed blood and water, the water of Baptism and the blood of the Eucharist, Sacraments of the Love of God.  In the past the Holy Blood was revered for the way it was that ‘ocean of love’ which could cleanse and renew our own –

Wash thou my wounds in that dear Blood
Which forth from thee doth flow,
New grace, new hope inspire, a new
And better heart bestow.

As Jesus said about the German mystic, St. Gertrude: ‘The proximity of her heart to the wound in my side means that I have so joined her heart to mine that she is able to receive, directly and at all times, the flow of my divinity.’  So we’re also to be priests of the wounded Christ, realising that the wounds of those with whom we minister are reflected in the Wounded Heart of Jesus.

THE CROWNED HEART

To underline the connection between the Sacred Heart and the Passion of Christ, the Heart is encircled by the Crown of Thorns.  Firstly, that reminds us how it wasn’t just His body which reveals the cost of love, His mind also paid the price.  But just as the Holy Lance which pierced the side of Jesus symbolises those ‘darts of longing love’ which gain us entry into Christ’s heart, so we can meditate on the way this Crown of love pierces him.

THE CROSS-CROWNED HEART

‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness’ (Phi. 2:1f).  It also reminds us that, whilst we may not find ourselves having to physically suffer for our faith, there will be many times when we’re pierced and humbled and all we can do is hold on to our consecration as priests of the Sacred Heart.  No wonder, then, that the Heart is surmounted by the Cross.  Or, perhaps we might consider how the Cross rests on the Sacred Heart reminding us that when we gaze on it, we must always contemplate it as the sign of God’s love.  Priestly ministry will always be under this sign of our Master and reminding us that we should never be surprised that we’re called to suffer with Him.  St. Teresa of Avila said: ‘the important thing is not to think much but to love much and do that which stirs us to love.’  How often do we place our mind in our heart?  Where is the centre of our being – in the head or the heart?

THE FLAMING HEART

Again, that consideration is informed by the way the Cross is enflamed – the fire of God’s love by which so many have said we must be consumed.  ‘May the power of your love’, prayed St. Francis of Assisi, ‘fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven.  Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love.’  That prayer should take us back to that triple question posed to St. Peter, a prayer which might be one every priest should pray daily.   The Sacred Heart is a warm, glowing heart, radiating compassionate love; a hurt, open heart which is the gate of heaven and needs to inform our priesthood.

THE NON-DUALISTIC HEART

But there’s an aspect of some Sacred Heart imagery many find off-putting – the way they show Jesus in an androgynous way – he seems partly male and partly female, certainly not a man’s man!   There’s a femininity about many images which can be challenging, but which fits with the classic symbolism of the heart as feminine and the mind as masculine; the softness and approachability of Jesus in such images is revealed by artists who, perhaps unconsciously, knew the Sacred Heart was meant to open us to the feminine in the divine and is meant to answer the false dualism pictures can inevitably portray.   For we know that in Christ there is neither male nor female, we are all one in Him (Gal. 3:28), something we need to realise in ourselves.   Our priesthood needs to incarnate both the feminine and masculine in God.

THE COSMIC HEART

Finally, I want to acknowledge that the Sacred Heart is not only a universal symbol, it’s also a symbol of the universe. ‘We know’, wrote St. Paul, ‘that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now’ (Roms. 8:22) and can rightly believe that, at the heart of the universe is the Heart of Christ, the Creator.  Within the Cosmic Christ is a cosmic intimacy; the Creator we proclaim isn’t some majestic deus ex machina, but a power of Love, a love whose nature is constantly creative.  The universe is like a woman struggling in giving birth to an infant conceived in love. 

One of the reasons why devotion to the Sacred Heart is so important is that it declares that we were made in that image and if you want to understand what this human-being is all about, look at the Sacred Heart.  As Teilhard de Chardin wrote in The Heart of the Matter, this devotion gave him a sense of the ‘solidity of Christ … the immersion of the divine in the corporeal … a glowing core of fire … able to insinuate itself everywhere … to make love of the cosmic milieu.’  Such a realisation lies behind eucharistic living, living with a constant realisation of the loving, compassionate presence of God in all things.  As priests, we are not only those who preside at the sacraments, we need to enable others to live sacramentally as we deepen our own awareness of God’s loving presence in all things.

CONCLUSION

So as we come to the end of this meditation, let’s keep a few minutes of silence at the end of which I’ll read a reflection by the late Mother Osyth of Malling Abbey.

(Silence)

Wind, fire and flame

   the outward sign 

   but in the heart

   breath of the spirit

        love and light

   heavenly dew

of sanctifying grace

   God’s very presence hallowing the place

   restoring to his image

        the souls face

SACRED HEART TALK 2020: The Heart of the Sacrament (2)

Welcome to this second talk exploring aspects of devotion to the Sacred Heart which are being given in June, the month traditionally concerned with this devotion. 

As I mentioned in the first talk, the Sacred Heart isn’t a devotion with which many Anglican’s are familiar, even though it was beginning to influence the church in Britain – and throughout Europe – long before the Reformation.  For example, St. Anselm, the 11^th cent Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote ‘The opening of the side of Christ reveals the riches of his love, the love of his heart for us’.  And Dame Julian of Norwich in the 15th century wrote in Ch. 24 of 'Revelations of Divine Love:' ‘Then our Lord looked into his side and rejoiced.  By this sweet look he had me gaze within his wound; he showed me a fair, delectable place, large enough for all humanity that should be saved to rest in peace and love.  And therewith he had me recall his dear, worthy blood and precious water, which he did pour out for love, and he showed me his blissful heart.’ 

But this wonderful river of affective devotion, devotion concerns the stirring of our emotions to help deepen our desire for God, was blocked at the Reformation and didn’t re-emerge until John Wesley began to speak from a heart warmed by Christ.  Later, at the end of the 19^th century, a few men came together to form the Society of Divine Compassion – another way of referring to the Sacred Heart.  It’s clear from the writings of one of them, Fr. Andrew, that he had a deep devotion to the Heart of Jesus  which we hear in his poem, Sacre Coeur:

Dear Heart, Who in Thy tender love didst come

Not from some cavernous and vast womb

Of cold and passionless eternity,

But didst in human wise take flesh for me

Of sweet St Mary's fair virginity,

and made ‘midst men Thy home.

Help me to see the greatest in the least,

The whole of life is one great Eucharist;

in common ways and simple loyalties

To find hid treasure of high sanctities,

as Love links symbols to realities

in Thy blest altar Feast.

THE FEAST

Perhaps Fr. Andrew felt that to call this emerging community the ‘Society of the Sacred Heart’ might be too much for most Anglicans!  But the Sacred Heart was one of their two dedications – the other being our Lady – and reflected their eventual choice of name ‘Divine Compassion’.  That was what these men, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, wanted the people amongst whom they ministered to experience – the compassionate, Heart of Jesus. 

The Society was never large and it’s last member died in 1952, but it did remarkable work not only in ministering in the slums of Plaistow but also in helping establish the Hospital and Homes of St. Giles for Lepers in East Hanningfield, Essex in 1914.   In recognition of the importance of SDC the revised Daily Office Book of the Society of St. Francis, published in 1992, named the Friday of the week following Corpus Christi, ‘The Divine Compassion of Christ’ and allowed it to be kept as a Feast.  That day (today), of course, is recognised as the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Catholic Church.  ‘The Divine Compassion’ also appeared in Celebrating Common Prayer, but when the Liturgical Commission published ‘Comm. Worship’ they dropped it from the Calendar.  I assume that was because it sounded too ‘Romish’ and I’m unsure if it appears in any of the multitude of Anglican service books which have appeared since. I don’t think it’s recognised in the calendar of the Episcopal Church, but I’d be interested to know if it’s officially recognised anywhere in the Anglican Communion.

Pope Pius IX had made the Feast of the Sacred Heart part of the general Calendar of the Church in 1856 but the first Office and Mass were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the Feast was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673.  During one of them, Jesus had said to her: "I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

SACRED HEART AND CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Such sentiments may have come from the lips of our Saviour, but it appears that they don’t resonate with many Anglicans …  Talk about the ‘grace’ which comes from receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, the need to prepare yourself, when necessary, by making your confession and so on seems not only foreign but, these days, unnecessary. 

Yet it’s part of that affective piety which seeks to involve the emotions to deepen devotion to the physicality of Christ and the saints, something which seems to have died in England with the Reformation and has hardly re-appeared.  Devotions concerning Mary, the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross may have gained a toe-hold, but the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (and they are both as one) have hardly any place.   And that is in spite of the way we know one of the most important teachings of Christianity concerns the love of God.  We may talk about it and preach about it, but we are an Incarnational, sacramental people – matter matters – and the image of the Sacred Heart reveals profound aspects of Godly love and the cost God in Jesus was prepared to pay to reveal the depths of his love, something I want to look at in the third and final talk . 

This piety towards the Sacred Heart isn’t just so we can feel better about ourselves or one intended to give us a spiritual ‘boost’, which is what some people say they get from going to a service, but to effect a change in our life.  Devotion to the Sacred Heart is intimately connected with personal conversion – with our metanoia.  This is brought out in another of the apparitions to Margaret Mary:

“Behold this Heart which has so loved human beings that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to give them proof of its love, and in return I received from the greater number nothing but ingratitude, contempt, irreverence, sacrilege,  and coldness towards the Sacrament of my love.” 

SACRED HEART AND THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

That final phrase, ‘the Sacrament of my love’, is something we ought to ponder – it reveals the intimate connection between the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament.   It’s a phrase which highlights the point–counterpoint of Jesus’ wooing us with his love: we reject him and then he loves us even more ardently.  This is a powerful affirmation of the unconditionality of God’s limitless love, a love that doesn’t depend our worthiness or actions.  A love which, the Collect for the Sodality of Mary, Mother of Priests compares with an ocean.

That was a term used by the Jesuit, St. Claude de la Colombiere, who was of immense help to St Margaret Mary: ocean of mercy found in the Heart of Jesus in also present in the Eucharist.  There were three occasions when St. Margaret Mary spoke of this love revealed through the Sacred Heart of the Eucharist, revelations which occurred whilst St. Margaret Mary was meditating before the Blessed Sacrament.  These point, in a very striking way, to the fact that God longs for us to let our love for him flow.  Both the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist reveal that ‘love was his meaning’ and that we were made out of love, for love.  One reflects the other and both are the consequence of the Incarnation – at the centre of the Sacrament in which the Word of God is present lies the Sacred Heart wanting to engage with ours.  As someone pointed out: the ‘so’ in ‘God so loved the world …’ is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

As many mystics realised, this holy courtship happens within us and that is why our response is described in their visions as an awakening to our true nature, a realisation of God within.   In that moment our solitary and self-sufficient ego turns out to be simply a much-too-limited identity.  We find our heart widens with this universal compassion found in the Heart of Christ: made by a God who is love, we are never more human than when we are expressing love – and both the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament make clear the nature of Godly love.  

That’s why those ordained to ministry need to have the Heart of Jesus – why they need to make sure they’re constantly returning to this source of the love they proclaim in word and deed.   Every priest needs, in a real way, to be a priest of the Sacred Heart, a priest of Divine Compassion, for it is Compassion which lies in the depths of the Sacred Heart – indeed, is the way in which that Heart is to be understood.  We can always be present to His compassion when we come before Him in the Blessed Sacrament. 

So people have longed to look upon that loving compassion and can do so when the Sacrament is exposed to our gaze on the altar: there we can be present to Him as He is present to us.  I know it’s unlikely to happen, but I have always thought how wonderful it would be if every church offered times when the Blessed Sacrament was shown, so anyone could sit or kneel in prayer in His Presence. Couldn’t churches consider helping people come and adore Him who longed – and longs – to be with us?  There we can talk with Him or just rest with Him – as did St. Margaret Mary – and know that He is fully present to all who come to Him.  Or, as someone I know does, could simply curl up before Him who opens His Heart to us in the Sacrament of Divine Love.

But even if we cannot find an open church where the brilliance of the Host shines out to our gaze, we can always take Him with us in the tabernacle of our heart for, as St Francis of Assisi wrote in his Rule of 1221: ‘We should make a dwelling-place within ourselves where He can stay, He who is the Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’  The Sacred Heart of the Blessed Sacrament invites us to make our heart’s like His.

Recently someone wrote to me about the way she realised her heart was growing harder:  ‘About six years ago I became troubled that my heart was becoming like stone, and I made a conscious choice to change this situation.  I knew that only God could help me on this one, and He did.’  She went on to observe: ‘I’ve noticed that, as some people get older, they become increasingly bitter and resentful about what life hurls at them.  They may even choose to have hatred running in their lives.  It sort of energises them and keeps them going.’

I had noticed something similar in some people’s attitudes towards those of other nationalities or ethnicities – and especially towards refugees and immigrants – following Brexit, and we’re only too conscious of this in the recent Black Lives Matter protests.  And I reflected on something the Holy Father wrote last year: “Jesus’ only judgement” he said, “is one filled with mercy and compassion.”   Yet re-making one’s heart isn’t easy, which is why the need to do so lies at the heart of ours and every faith.   As one great Scottish evangelist wrote: ‘To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.”

CONCLUSION

In the end, devotion to the Sacred Heart is simply about making the heart, the centre of our being, like Christ’s.   Nurturing within ourselves His love and compassion which is why the fact that the Sacred Heart has never had a place in the life of the Church of England is a cause for great sadness, for it is our loss.   We may or may not have celebrated the Feast today (maybe, next year?!) but the reality of the Divine Compassion of Jesus is something we need to desire to flow in our hearts and be lived out in our lives.  This ought not to be an optional celebration for catholic’s ‘who like that sort of thing’ but one which is of obligation. 

We are obligated to the Sacred Heart – made in the image of God we are not completely human – we don’t reflect what being human is all about – until our heart is like the Heart of Jesus – and Mary.  We will find ourselves in the Sacred Heart, know ourselves there, and know that the suffering we might experience as we seek to love as He does takes us more deeply into His Heart.

O Jesu, O Sacred Heart,

burning with Divine love

    send into my heart

a spark of that fire

which burneth in thee;

    excite in me a burning and a flaming spirit;

    impress upon me

the seal of thy Love

that I may worthily before thy work

Prayer from A Pilgrim’s Book of Prayers, Fr. Gilbert Shaw, p. 26

SODALITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF PRIESTS - a new development?

‘Cor ad cor loquitor’

INTRODUCTION

Recently Fr. Richard circulated a note about how we might include lay people in the Sodality, as indicated in the Principles.  It’s a development that’s been on the side-lines but Richard has given it a kick into play and I wanted to take it up and, by God’s grace, see what emerged as I held it for a while.

I’m sure you are aware that, along with the development of the Sodality, I launched a Spiritual Association, rooted in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, offering a simple Rule of Life whose charism has been to express compassion.  It has the Approval of the Bishop of Southwark and we now have 16 Companions, most of whom are priests and including one bishop, and 14 Associates.  Alongside all this

Following writing ‘Enfolded in Christ – The Inner Life of a Priest’ I realised I could have said more about how to live with greater integrity – holiness – and to give greater attention to the call of Christ and the gospel.  Having been a Religious for many years the Franciscan charism is still present and I have been looking at various options and praying for discernment as to the possible way forward.   At present some of those associated with the Sodality have joined other, dispersed communities (Benedictine) and there are some new forms of online ‘Monastic’ life on offer, not least in the Episcopal Church as well as some in the UK (Cistercians – traditional and male and Hopeweavers – new form, for example). 

These elements seem to be related and I wonder if others wonder if the Sodality might explore whether it might provide an ‘umbrella’ under which, for example, an intentional open community might develop which gave expression to aspects of the Sodality charism, was dispersed and rich in catholic spirituality.  I have now spoken with Fr. Richard who noted that such an ‘umbrella’ is provided by the Carmelites and Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus and recommended I put a written proposal to the Sodality Council at the Annual Meeting.

PROPOSAL

That SMMS gather a group of people – lay and ordained – who are interested in developing their baptismal commitment that ‘dying to sin we may live the risen life’ through a committed form of dispersed religious life.

For some this has meant undertaking: the Benedictine vows of obedience, stability and ‘conversatio morum’, variously translated as ‘conversion of manners’ or ‘of life’, whilst non-monastics have expressed their commitment through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  What might be appropriate?  Here are my suggestions:

            Simplicity of life

            Commitment to appropriate relationships

            Conversion of the heart

The Aim of the new Association (?) could reflect that of the Sodality which the Principles state is for:

‘the sanctification of  (Associates – lay or ordained)

through the hearts of Jesus and Mary, for the glory of God, and to nurture God’s Reign.’

Our Principles offer some clear ways for a vowed Association – here are some suggestions: which emerge form these{

Simplicity of life:

            - to contemplatively listen as Mary did (Day 6)

            - to live with generosity, rooted in simplicity of life (Day 10).  This might involve, for example, giving away 5% of one’s disposable income;

Commitment to appropriate relationships

            - we don’t include this so it would be something new to offer;

Conversion of the heart: (This feels most important and could develop Day 18 of the Principles: ‘Called to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary’)

            - to imitate Mary (Day 3) – the one who sought to live by the Divine Will;

            - to live with humility (Day 11).  This is already part of the charism of the Association of the   Hearts of Jesus and Mary but might be developed in ecological ways as well;

            - to live with repentance (Day 12).  This might involve making use of the sacrament of             Reconciliation

            - to live with mercy (Day 13).  Like members of the Association of Compassionate Hearts,       Sodalists already recognise that Compassion expresses God’s love for humanity, and is shown           especially in the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

            -  to commit to evangelisation (Day 14).  To reach out to others from the Heart of God and to serve the Reign of God in whatever way might be appropriate to the individual (Day 9).  This    might include a recognition that we are all sisters and brothers with the whole of creation.

CONTEMPATIVE LIVING

The focus of the Sodality on Mary and her place in our life suggests that there might be an emphasis on living contemplatively.  There are few existing ‘new communities’ in the UK (I think Hopeweavers sees itself as contemplative) which are rooted in contemplative living, something which the Carmelite lay communities focus on, so this might be something a new development could be rooted in: contemplative living the gospel – something the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus emphasise. 

PRAYER

To spend at least 30 mins a day in silent prayer, and to make use of the Examen each day.

To take a retreat each year, either at a Retreat Centre or at home

To make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as conscience requires.

CONCLUSION

These are just some thoughts as to a way forward if SMMS wants to take up this idea of opening up to lay people, an idea which might take the working name of Solitaries of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary’.  It might also help those of us, married, partnered or single, who are looking for a way of committing ourselves to a way that’s rooted in the tradition of Christian religious life.

John-Francis Friendship, Feast of Dame Julian of Norwich 2018