ENCYCLICAL LETTER
OF POPE PIUS XII ON DEVOTION TO THE
SACRED HEART
Issued on May 15,
1956
Venerable Brethren: Health and
Apostolic Benediction.
1. "You shall draw waters
with joy out of the Savior's fountain."[1]
These words by which the prophet Isaias,
using highly significant imagery, foretold
the manifold and abundant gifts of God
which the Christian era was to bring
forth, come naturally to Our mind when
We reflect on the centenary of that
year when Our predecessor of immortal
memory, Pius IX, gladly yielding to
the prayers from the whole Catholic
world, ordered the celebration of the
feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
in the Universal Church.
2. 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. Therefore, recalling
those wise words of the Apostle St.
James, "Every best gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of Lights,"[2]
We are perfectly justified in seeing
in this same devotion, which flourishes
with increasing fervor throughout the
world, a gift without price which our
divine Savior the Incarnate Word, as
the one Mediator of grace and truth
between the heavenly Father and the
human race imparted to the Church, His
mystical Spouse, in recent centuries
when she had to endure such trials and
surmount so many difficulties.
3. The Church, rejoicing in
this inestimable gift, can show forth
a more ardent love of her divine Founder,
and can, in a more generous and effective
manner, respond to that invitation which
St. John the Evangelist relates as having
come from Christ Himself: "And
on the last and great day of the festivity,
Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If
any man thirst, let him come to Me,
and let him drink that believeth in
Me. As the Scripture saith: Out of his
heart there shall flow rivers of living
waters.' Now this He said of the Spirit
which they should receive who believed
in Him."[3]
4. For those who were listening
to Jesus speaking, it certainly was
not difficult to relate these words
by which He promised the fountain of
"living water" destined to
spring from His own side, to the words
of sacred prophecy of Isaias, Ezechiel
and Zacharias, foretelling the Messianic
Kingdom, and likewise to the symbolic
rock from which, when struck by Moses,
water flowed forth in a miraculous manner.[4]
5. Divine Love first takes its
origin from the Holy Spirit, Who is
the Love in Person of the Father and
the Son in the bosom of the most Holy
Trinity. Most aptly then does the Apostle
of the Gentiles echo, as it were, the
words of Jesus Christ, when he ascribes
the pouring forth of love in the hearts
of believers to this Spirit of Love:
"The charity of God is poured forth
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who
is given to us."[5]
6. Holy Writ declares that between
divine charity, which must burn in the
souls of Christians, and the Holy Spirit,
Who is certainly Love Itself, there
exists the closest bond, which clearly
shows all of us, venerable brethren,
the intimate nature of that worship
which must be paid to the Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus Christ. If we consider
its special nature it is beyond question
that this devotion is an act of religion
of high order; it demands of us a complete
and unreserved determination to devote
and consecrate ourselves to the love
of the divine Redeemer, Whose wounded
Heart is its living token and symbol.
It is equally clear, but at a higher
level, that this same devotion provides
us with a most powerful means of repaying
the divine Lord by our own.
7. Indeed it follows that it
is only under the impulse of love that
the minds of men obey fully and perfectly
the rule of the Supreme Being, since
the influence of our love draws us close
to the divine Will that it becomes as
it were completely one with it, according
to the saying, "He who is joined
to the Lord, is one spirit."[6]
8. The Church has always valued,
and still does, the devotion to the
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus so highly
that she provides for the spread of
it among Christian peoples everywhere
and by every means. At the same time
she uses every effort to protect it
against the charges of so-called "naturalism"
and "sentimentalism." In spite
of this it is much to be regretted that,
both in the past and in our own times,
this most noble devotion does not find
a place of honor and esteem among certain
Christians and even occasionally not
among those who profess themselves moved
by zeal for the Catholic religion and
the attainment of holiness.
9. "If you but knew the
gift of God."[7] With these words,
venerable brethren, We who in the secret
designs of God have been elected as
the guardians and stewards of the sacred
treasures of faith and piety which the
divine Redeemer has entrusted to His
Church, prompted by Our sense of duty,
admonish them all.
10. For even though the devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has triumphed
so to speak, over the errors and the
neglect of men, and has penetrated entirely
His Mystical Body; still there are some
of Our children who, led astray by prejudices,
sometimes go so far as to consider this
devotion ill-adapted, not to say detrimental,
to the more pressing spiritual needs
of the Church and humanity in this present
age. There are some who, confusing and
confounding the primary nature of this
devotion with various individual forms
of piety which the Church approves and
encourages but does not command, regard
this as a kind of additional practice
which each one may take up or not according
to his own inclination.
11. There are others who reckon
this same devotion burdensome and of
little or no use to men who are fighting
in the army of the divine King and who
are inspired mainly by the thought of
laboring with their own strength, their
own resources and expenditures of their
own time, to defend Catholic truth,
to teach and spread it, to instill Christian
social teachings, to promote those acts
of religion and those undertakings which
they consider much more necessary today.
12. Again, there are those who
so far from considering this devotion
a strong support for the right ordering
and renewal of Christian morals both
in the individual's private life and
in the home circle, see it rather a
type of piety nourished not by the soul
and mind but by the senses and consequently
more suited to the use of women, since
it seems to them something not quite
suitable for educated men.
13. Moreover there are those
who consider a devotion of this kind
as primarily demanding penance, expiation
and the other virtues which they call
"passive," meaning thereby
that they produce no external results.
Hence they do not think it suitable
to re-enkindle the spirit of piety in
modern times. Rather, this should aim
at open and vigorous action, at the
triumph of the Catholic faith, at a
strong defense of Christian morals.
Christian morality today, as everyone
knows, is easily contaminated by the
sophistries of those who are indifferent
to any form of religion, and who, discarding
all distinctions between truth and falsehood,
whether in thought or in practice, accept
even the most ignoble corruptions of
materialistic atheism, or as they call
it, secularism.
14. Who does not see, venerable
brethren, that opinions of this kind
are in entire disagreement with the
teachings which Our predecessors officially
proclaimed from this seat of truth when
approving the devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus.? Who would be so bold
as to call that devotion useless and
inappropriate to our age which Our predecessor
of immortal memory, Leo XIII, declared
to be "the most acceptable form
of piety?" He had no doubt that
in it there was a powerful remedy for
the healing of those very evils which
today also, and beyond question in a
wider and more serious way, bring distress
and disquiet to individuals and to the
whole human race. "This devotion,"
he said, "which We recommend to
all, will be profitable to all."
And he added this counsel and encouragement
with reference to the devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus: ". . .hence
those forces of evil which have now
for so long a time been taking root
and which so fiercely compel us to seek
help from Him by Whose strength alone
they can be driven away. Who can He
be but Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of God? 'For there is no other name
under heaven given to men whereby we
must be saved.'[8] We must have recourse
to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and
the Life."[9]
15. No less to be approved,
no less suitable for the fostering of
Christian piety was this devotion declared
to be by Our predecessor of happy memory,
Pius XI. In an encyclical letter he
wrote: "Is not a summary of all
our religion and, moreover, a guide
to a more perfect life contained in
this one devotion? Indeed, it more easily
leads our minds to know Christ the Lord
intimately and more effectively turns
our hearts to love Him more ardently
and to imitate Him more perfectly."[10]
16. To Us, no less than to Our
predecessors, these capital truths are
clear and certain. When We took up Our
office of Supreme Pontiff and saw, in
full accord with Our prayers and desires,
that the devotion to the Sacred Heart
of Jesus had increased and was actually,
so to speak, making triumphal progress
among Christian peoples, We rejoiced
that from it were flowing through the
whole Church innumerable and salutary
results. This We were pleased to point
out in Our first encyclical letter.[11]
17. Through the years of Our
pontificate--years filled not only with
bitter hardships but also with ineffable
consolations these effects have not
diminished in number or power or beauty,
but on the contrary have increased.
Indeed, happily there has begun a variety
of projects which are conducive to a
rekindling of this devotion. We refer
to the formation of cultural associations
for the advancement of religion and
of charitable works; publications setting
forth the true historical, ascetical
and mystical doctrine concerning this
entire subject; pious works of atonement;
and in particular those manifestations
of most ardent piety which the Apostleship
of Prayer has brought about, under whose
auspices and direction local gatherings
-- families, colleges, institutions
-- and sometimes nations have been consecrated
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To all
these We have offered paternal congratulations
on many occasions, whether in letters
written on the subject, in personal
addresses, or even in messages delivered
over the radio.[12]
18. Therefore when We perceive
so fruitful an abundance of healing
waters, that is, heavenly gifts of divine
love, issuing from the Sacred Heart
of our Redeemer, spreading among countless
children of the Catholic Church by the
inspiration and action of the divine
Spirit; We can only exhort you, venerable
brethren, with fatherly affection to
join Us in giving tribute of praise
and heartfelt thanks to God, the Giver
of all good gifts. We make Our own these
words of the Apostle of the Gentiles:
"Now to Him Who is able to do all
things more abundantly than we desire
or understand, according to the power
that worketh in us, to Him be glory
in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto
all generations world without end. Amen."[13]
19. But after We have paid Our
debt of thanks to the Eternal God, We
wish to urge on you and on all Our beloved
children of the Church a more earnest
consideration of those principles which
take their origin from Scripture and
the teaching of the Fathers and theologians
and on which, as on solid foundations,
the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
rests. We are absolutely convinced that
not until we have made a profound study
of the primary and loftier nature of
this devotion with the aid of the light
of the divinely revealed truth, can
we rightly and fully appreciate its
incomparable excellence and the inexhaustible
abundance of its heavenly favors. Likewise
by devout meditation and contemplation
of the innumerable benefits produced
from it, we will be able to celebrate
worthily the completion of the first
hundred years since the observance of
the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
was extended to the Universal Church.
20. Moved therefore by this
consideration, to the end that the minds
of the faithful may have from Our hands
salutary food and consequently after
such nourishment be able more easily
to arrive at a deeper understanding
of the true nature of this devotion
and possess its rich fruits, We will
undertake to explain those pages of
the Old and New Testament in which the
infinite love of God for the human race
(which we shall never be able adequately
to contemplate) is revealed and set
before us. Then, as occasion offers,
We shall touch upon the main lines of
the commentaries which the Fathers and
Doctors of the Church have handed down
to us. And finally, We shall strive
to set in its true light the very close
connection which exists between the
form of devotion paid to the Heart of
the divine Redeemer and the worship
we owe to His love and to the love of
the Most Holy Trinity for all men. For
We think if only the main elements on
which the most excellent form of devotion
rests are clarified in the light of
Sacred Scripture and the teachings of
tradition, Christians can more easily
"draw waters with joy out of the
Savior's fountains."[14] By this
We mean they can appreciate more fully
the full weight of the special importance
which devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus enjoys in the liturgy of the Church
and in its internal and external life
and action, and can also gather those
fruits of salvation by which each one
can bring about a healthy reform in
his own conduct, as the bishops of the
Christian flock desire.
21. For although Christian spouses
even if sanctified themselves cannot
transmit sanctification to their progeny,
nay, although the very natural process
of generating life has become the way
of death by which original sin is passed
on to posterity, nevertheless, they
share to some extent in the blessings
of that primeval marriage of Paradise,
since it is theirs to offer their offspring
to the Church in order that by this
most fruitful Mother of the children
of God they may be regenerated through
the laver of Baptism unto supernatural
justice and finally be made living members
of Christ, partakers of immortal life,
and heirs of that eternal glory to which
we all aspire from our inmost heart.
22. If a true Christian mother
weigh well these things, she will indeed
understand with a sense of deep consolation
that of her the words of Our Savior
were spoken: "A woman . . . when
she hath brought forth the child remembereth
no more the anguish, for joy that a
man is born into the world";[17]
and proving herself superior to all
the pains and cares and solicitudes
of her maternal office with a more just
and holy joy than that of the Roman
matron, the mother of the Gracchi, she
will rejoice in the Lord crowned as
it were with the glory of her offspring.
Both husband and wife, however, receiving
these children with joy and gratitude
from the hand of God, will regard them
as a talent committed to their charge
by God, not only to be employed for
their own advantage or for that of an
earthly commonwealth, but to be restored
to God with interest on the day of reckoning.
23. The blessing of offspring,
however, is not completed by the mere
begetting of them, but something else
must be added, namely the proper education
of the offspring. For the most wise
God would have failed to make sufficient
provision for children that had been
born, and so for the whole human race,
if He had not given to those to whom
He had entrusted the power and right
to beget them, the power also and the
right to educate them. For no one can
fail to see that children are incapable
of providing wholly for themselves,
even in matters pertaining to their
natural life, and much less in those
pertaining to the supernatural, but
require for many years to be helped,
instructed, and educated by others.
Now it is certain that both by the law
of nature and of God this right and
duty of educating their offspring belongs
in the first place to those who began
the work of nature by giving them birth,
and they are indeed forbidden to leave
unfinished this work and so expose it
to certain ruin. But in matrimony provision
has been made in the best possible way
for this education of children that
is so necessary, for, since the parents
are bound together by an indissoluble
bond, the care and mutual help of each
is always at hand.
24. Since, however, We have
spoken fully elsewhere on the Christian
education of youth,[18] let Us sum it
all up by quoting once more the words
of St. Augustine: "As regards the
offspring it is provided that they should
be begotten lovingly and educated religiously,"[19]--and
this is also expressed succinctly in
the Code of Canon Law--"The primary
end of marriage is the procreation and
the education of children."[20]
25. Nor must We omit to remark,
in fine, that since the duty entrusted
to parents for the good of their children
is of such high dignity and of such
great importance, every use of the faculty
given by God for the procreation of
new life is the right and the privilege
of the married state alone, by the law
of God and of nature, and must be confined
absolutely within the sacred limits
of that state.
26. The second blessing of matrimony
which We said was mentioned by St. Augustine,
is the blessing of conjugal honor which
consists in the mutual fidelity of the
spouses in fulfilling the marriage contract,
so that what belongs to one of the parties
by reason of this contract sanctioned
by divine law, may not be denied to
him or permitted to any third person;
nor may there be conceded to one of
the parties anything which, being contrary
to the rights and laws of God and entirely
opposed to matrimonial faith, can never
be conceded.
27. Wherefore, conjugal faith,
or honor, demands in the first place
the complete unity of matrimony which
the Creator Himself laid down in the
beginning when He wished it to be not
otherwise than between one man and one
woman. And although afterwards this
primeval law was relaxed to some extent
by God, the Supreme Legislator, there
is no doubt that the law of the Gospel
fully restored that original and perfect
unity, and abrogated all dispensations
as the words of Christ and the constant
teaching and action of the Church show
plainly. With reason, therefore, does
the Sacred Council of Trent solemnly
declare: "Christ Our Lord very
clearly taught that in this bond two
persons only are to be united and joined
together when He said: 'Therefore they
are no longer two, but one flesh'."[21]
28. Nor did Christ Our Lord
wish only to condemn any form of polygamy
or polyandry, as they are called, whether
successive or simultaneous, and every
other external dishonorable act, but,
in order that the sacred bonds of marriage
may be guarded absolutely inviolate,
He forbade also even willful thoughts
and desires of such like things: "But
I say to you, that whosoever shall look
on a woman to lust after her hath already
committed adultery with her in his heart."[22]
Which words of Christ Our Lord cannot
be annulled even by the consent of one
of the partners of marriage for they
express a law of God and of nature which
no will of man can break or bend.[23]
29. Nay, that mutual familiar
intercourse between the spouses themselves,
if the blessing of conjugal faith is
to shine with becoming splendor, must
be distinguished by chastity so that
husband and wife bear themselves in
all things with the law of God and of
nature, and endeavor always to follow
the will of their most wise and holy
Creator with the greatest reverence
toward the work of God.
30. This conjugal faith, however,
which is most aptly called by St. Augustine
the "faith of chastity" blooms
more freely, more beautifully and more
nobly, when it is rooted in that more
excellent soil, the love of husband
and wife which pervades all the duties
of married life and holds pride of place
in Christian marriage. For matrimonial
faith demands that husband and wife
be joined in an especially holy and
pure love, not as adulterers love each
other, but as Christ loved the Church.
This precept the Apostle laid down when
he said: "Husbands, love your wives
as Christ also loved the Church,"[24]
that Church which of a truth He embraced
with a boundless love not for the sake
of His own advantage, but seeking only
the good of His Spouse.[25] The love,
then, of which We are speaking is not
that based on the passing lust of the
moment nor does it consist in pleasing
words only, but in the deep attachment
of the heart which is expressed in action,
since love is proved by deeds.[26] This
outward expression of love in the home
demands not only mutual help but must
go further; must have as its primary
purpose that man and wife help each
other day by day in forming and perfecting
themselves in the interior life, so
that through their partnership in life
they may advance ever more and more
in virtue, and above all that they may
grow in true love toward God and their
neighbor, on which indeed "dependeth
the whole Law and the Prophets."[27]
For all men of every condition, in whatever
honorable walk of life they may be,
can and ought to imitate that most perfect
example of holiness placed before man
by God, namely Christ Our Lord, and
by God's grace to arrive at the summit
of perfection, as is proved by the example
set us of many saints.
31. This mutual molding of husband
and wife, this determined effort to
perfect each other, can in a very real
sense, as the Roman Catechism teaches,
be said to be the chief reason and purpose
of matrimony, provided matrimony be
looked at not in the restricted sense
as instituted for the proper conception
and education of the child, but more
widely as the blending of life as a
whole and the mutual interchange and
sharing thereof.
32. By this same love it is
necessary that all the other rights
and duties of the marriage state be
regulated as the words of the Apostle:
"Let the husband render the debt
to the wife, and the wife also in like
manner to the husband,"[28] express
not only a law of justice but of charity.
33. Domestic society being confirmed,
therefore, by this bond of love, there
should flourish in it that "order
of love," as St. Augustine calls
it. This order includes both the primacy
of the husband with regard to the wife
and children, the ready subjection of
the wife and her willing obedience,
which the Apostle commends in these
words: "Let women be subject to
their husbands as to the Lord, because
the husband is the head of the wife,
and Christ is the head of the Church."[29]
34. This subjection, however,
does not deny or take away the liberty
which fully belongs to the woman both
in view of her dignity as a human person,
and in view of her most noble office
as wife and mother and companion; nor
does it bid her obey her husband's every
request if not in harmony with right
reason or with the dignity due to wife;
nor, in fine, does it imply that the
wife should be put on a level with those
persons who in law are called minors,
to whom it is customary to allow free
exercise of their rights on account
of their lack of mature judgment, or
of their ignorance of human affairs.
But it forbids that exaggerated liberty
which cares not for the good of the
family; it forbids that in this body
which is the family, the heart be separated
from the head to the great detriment
of the whole body and the proximate
danger of ruin. For if the man is the
head, the woman is the heart, and as
he occupies the chief place in ruling,
so she may and ought to claim for herself
the chief place in love.
35. Again, this subjection of
wife to husband in its degree and manner
may vary according to the different
conditions of persons, place and time.
In fact, if the husband neglect his
duty, it falls to the wife to take his
place in directing the family. But the
structure of the family and its fundamental
law, established and confirmed by God,
must always and everywhere be maintained
intact .
36. With great wisdom Our predecessor
Leo XIII, of happy memory, in the Encyclical
on Christian marriage which We have
already mentioned, speaking of this
order to be maintained between man and
wife, teaches: "The man is the
ruler of the family, and the head of
the woman; but because she is flesh
of his flesh and bone of his bone, let
her be subject and obedient to the man,
not as a servant but as a companion,
so that nothing be lacking of honor
or of dignity in the obedience which
she pays. Let divine charity be the
constant guide of their mutual relations,
both in him who rules and in her who
obeys, since each bears the image, the
one of Christ, the other of the Church."[30]
37. These, then, are the elements
which compose the blessing of conjugal
faith: unity, chastity, charity, honorable
noble obedience, which are at the same
time an enumeration of the benefits
which are bestowed on husband and wife
in their married state, benefits by
which the peace, the dignity and the
happiness of matrimony are securely
preserved and fostered. Wherefore it
is not surprising that this conjugal
faith has always been counted amongst
the most priceless and special blessings
of matrimony.
38. But this accumulation of
benefits is completed and, as it were,
crowned by that blessing of Christian
marriage which in the words of St. Augustine
we have called the sacrament, by which
is denoted both the indissolubility
of the bond and the raising and hallowing
of the contract by Christ Himself, whereby
He made it an efficacious sign of grace.
39. In the first place Christ
Himself lays stress on the indissolubility
and firmness of the marriage bond when
He says: "What God hath joined
together let no man put asunder,"[31]
and: "Everyone that putteth away
his wife and marrieth another committeth
adultery, and he that marrieth her that
is put away from her husband committeth
adultery."[32]
40. And St. Augustine clearly
places what he calls the blessing of
matrimony in this indissolubility when
he says: "In the sacrament it is
provided that the marriage bond should
not be broken, and that a husband or
wife, if separated, should not be joined
to another even for the sake of offspring."[33]
41. And this inviolable stability,
although not in the same perfect measure
in every case, belongs to every true
marriage, for the word of the Lord:
"What God hath joined together
let no man put asunder," must of
necessity include all true marriages
without exception, since it was spoken
of the marriage of our first parents,
the prototype of every future marriage.
Therefore although before Christ the
sublimeness and the severity of the
primeval law was so tempered that Moses
permitted to the chosen people of God
on account of the hardness of their
hearts that a bill of divorce might
be given in certain circumstances, nevertheless,
Christ, by virtue of His supreme legislative
power, recalled this concession of greater
liberty and restored the primeval law
in its integrity by those words which
must never be forgotten, "What
God hath joined together let no man
put asunder." Wherefore, Our predecessor
Pius VI of happy memory, writing to
the Bishop of Agria, most wisely said:
"Hence it is clear that marriage
even in the state of nature, and certainly
long before it was raised to the dignity
of a sacrament, was divinely instituted
in such a way that it should carry with
it a perpetual and indissoluble bond
which cannot therefore be dissolved
by any civil law. Therefore although
the sacramental element may be absent
from a marriage as is the case among
unbelievers, still in such a marriage,
inasmuch as it is a true marriage there
must remain and indeed there does remain
that perpetual bond which by divine
right is so bound up with matrimony
from its first institution that it is
not subject to any civil power. And
so, whatever marriage is said to be
contracted, either it is so contracted
that it is really a true marriage, in
which case it carries with it that enduring
bond which by divine right is inherent
in every true marriage; or it is thought
to be contracted without that perpetual
bond, and in that case there is no marriage,
but an illicit union opposed of its
very nature to the divine law, which
therefore cannot be entered into or
maintained."[34]
42. Nothing, then, was wanting
to the human nature which the Word of
God united to Himself. Consequently
He assumed it in no diminished way,
in no different sense in what concerns
the spiritual and the corporeal: that
is, it was endowed with intellect and
will and the other internal and external
faculties of perception, and likewise
with the desires and all the natural
impulses of the senses. All this the
Catholic Church teaches as solemnly
defined and ratified by the Roman Pontiffs
and the general councils. "Whole
and entire in what is His own, whole
and entire in what is ours."[37]
"Perfect in His Godhead and likewise
perfect in His humanity."[38] "Complete
God is man, complete man is God."[39]
43. Hence, since there can be
no doubt that Jesus Christ received
a true body and had all the affections
proper to the same, among which love
surpassed all the rest, it is likewise
beyond doubt that He was endowed with
a physical heart like ours; for without
this noblest part of the body the ordinary
emotions of human life are impossible.
Therefore the Heart of Jesus Christ,
hypostatically united to the divine
Person of the Word, certainly beat with
love and with the other emotions- but
these, joined to a human will full of
divine charity and to the infinite love
itself which the Son shares with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, were in
such complete unity and agreement that
never among these three loves was there
any contradiction of or disharmony.[40]
44. However, even though the
Word of God took to Himself a true and
perfect human nature, and made and fashioned
for Himself a heart of flesh, which,
no less than ours could suffer and be
pierced, unless this fact is considered
in the light of the hypostatic and substantial
union and in the light of its complement,
the fact of man' s redemption, it can
be a stumbling block and foolishness
to some, just as Jesus Christ, nailed
to the Cross, actually was to the Jewish
race and to the Gentiles.[41]
45. The official teachings of
the Catholic faith, in complete agreement
with Scripture, assure us that the only
begotten Son of God took a human nature
capable of suffering and death especially
because He desired, as He hung from
the Cross, to offer a bloody sacrifice
in order to complete the work of man's
salvation. This the Apostle of the Gentiles
teaches in another way: "For both
He that sanctifieth, and they who are
sanctified are all of one. For which
cause He is not ashamed to call them
brethren, saying, 'I will declare thy
name to My brethren'. . .And again,
'Behold I and My children, whom God
hath given Me.' Therefore, because the
children are partakers of flesh and
blood, He also in like manner hath been
partaker of the same. . .Wherefore it
behooved Him in all things to be made
like unto His brethren that He might
become a merciful and faithful high
priest before God, that He might be
a propitiation for the sins of the people.
For in that wherein He Himself hath
suffered and been tempted He is able
to succor them who are tempted."[42]
46. The holy Fathers, true witnesses
of the divinely revealed doctrine, wonderfully
understood what St. Paul the Apostle
had quite clearly declared; namely,
that the mystery of love was, as it
were, both the foundation and the culmination
of the Incarnation and the Redemption.
For frequently and clearly we can read
in their writings that Jesus Christ
took a perfect human nature and our
weak and perishable human body with
the object of providing for our eternal
salvation, and of revealing to us in
the clearest possible manner that His
infinite love for us could express itself
in human terms.
47. St. Justin, almost echoing
the voice of the Apostle of the Gentiles,
writes: "We adore and love the
Word born of the unbegotten and ineffable
God since He became man for our sake,
so that having become a partaker of
our sufferings He might provide a remedy
for them."[43]
48. St. Basil, the first of
the three Cappadocian Fathers declares
that the feelings of the senses in Christ
were at once true and holy: "It
is clear that the Lord did indeed put
on natural affections as a proof of
His real and not imaginary Incarnation,
and that He rejected as unworthy of
the Godhead those corrupt affections
which defile the purity of our life."[44]
49. Similarly that light of
the Church of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom,
admits that the emotion of the senses
to which the divine Redeemer was subject
made obvious the fact that He assumed
a human nature complete in all respects:
"For if He had not shared our nature
He would not have repeatedly been seized
with grief."[45]
50. Among the Latin Fathers
one may cite those whom the Church today
honors as the greatest doctors. Thus
St. Ambrose bears witness that the movements
and dispositions of the senses, from
which the Incarnate Word of (God was
not exempt, flow from the hypostatic
union as from their natural source:
"And therefore He put on a soul
and the passions of the soul; for God,
precisely because He is God, could not
have been disturbed nor could He have
died."[46]
51. It was from these very emotions
that St. Jerome derived his chief proof
that Christ had really put on human
nature: "Our Lord, to prove the
truth of the manhood He had assumed,
experiences real sadness."[47]
52. But St. Augustine, in a
special manner, notices the connections
that exist between the sentiments of
the Incarnate Word and their purpose,
man's redemption. "These affections
of human infirmity, even as the human
body itself and death, the Lord Jesus
put on not out of necessity, but freely
out of compassion so that He might transform
in Himself His Body, which is the Church
of which He deigned to be the Head,
that is, His members who are among the
faithful and the saints, so that if
any of them in the trials of this life
should be saddened and afflicted they
should not therefore think that they
are deprived of His grace. Nor should
they consider this sorrow a sin, but
a sign of human weakness. Like a choir
singing in harmony with the note that
has been sounded, so should His Body
learn from its Head."[48]
53. More briefly, but no less
effectively, do the following passages
from St. John Damascene set out the
teaching of the Church: "Complete
God assumed me completely and complete
man is united to complete God so that
He might bring salvation to complete
man. For what was not assumed could
not be healed."[49] "He therefore
assumed all that He might sanctify all."[50]
54. However, it must be noted
that although these selected passages
from Scripture and the Fathers and many
similar ones that We have not cited
give clear testimony that Jesus Christ
was endowed with affections and sense
perceptions, and hence that He assumed
human nature in order to work for our
eternal salvation, yet they never refer
those affections to His physical heart
in such a way as to point to it clearly
as the symbol of His infinite love.
55. Granted that the Evangelists
and other sacred writers do not explicitly
describe the Heart of our Redeemer,
living and throbbing like our own with
the power of feeling, and ever throbbing
with the emotions and affections of
His soul and the glowing charity of
His twofold will, yet they often set
in their proper light His divine love
and the sense emotions which accompany
it; that is, desire, joy, weakness,
fear and anger, as shown by His face,
words or gesture. The face of our adorable
Savior was especially the guide, and
a kind of faithful reflection, of those
emotions which moved His soul in various
ways and like repeating waves touched
His Sacred Heart and excited its beating.
For what is true of human psychology
and its effects is valid here also.
The Angelic Doctor, relying on ordinary
experience, notes: "An emotion
caused by anger is conveyed to the external
members, and particularly to those members
in which the heart's imprint is more
obviously reflected, such as the eyes,
the face, and the tongue."[51]
56. For these reasons, the Heart
of the Incarnate Word is deservedly
and rightly considered the chief sign
and symbol of that threefold love with
which the divine Redeemer unceasingly
loves His eternal Father and all mankind.
57. It is a symbol of that divine
love which He shares with the Father
and the Holy Spirit but which He, the
Word made flesh, alone manifests through
a weak and perishable body, since "in
Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead
bodily."[52]
58. It is, besides, the symbol
of that burning love which, infused
into His soul, enriches the human will
of Christ and enlightens and governs
its acts by the most perfect knowledge
derived both from the beatific vision
and that which is directly infused.[53]
59. And finally--and this in
a more natural and direct way--it is
the symbol also of sensible love, since
the body of Jesus Christ, formed by
the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the
Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of
feelings and perception, in fact, more
so than any other human body.[54]
60. Since, therefore, Sacred
Scripture and the official teaching
of the Catholic faith instruct us that
all things find their complete harmony
and order in the most holy soul of Jesus
Christ, and that He has manifestly directed
His threefold love for the securing
of our redemption, it unquestionably
follows that we can contemplate and
honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer
as a symbolic image of His love and
a witness of our redemption and, at
the same time, as a sort of mystical
ladder by which we mount to the embrace
of "God our Savior."[55]
61. Hence His words, actions,
commands, miracles, and especially those
works which manifest more clearly His
love for us--such as the divine institution
of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings
and death, the loving gift of His holy
Mother to us, the founding of the Church
for us, and finally, the sending of
the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and
upon us--all these, We say, ought to
be looked upon as proofs of His threefold
love.
62. Likewise we ought to meditate
most lovingly on the beating of His
Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as
it were, to measure the time of His
sojourn on earth until that final moment
when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying
out with a loud voice 'It is finished.',
and bowing His Head, He yielded up the
ghost."[56] Then it was that His
heart ceased to beat and His sensible
love was interrupted until the time
when, triumphing over death, He rose
from the tomb.
63. But after His glorified
body had been re-united to the soul
of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of
death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased,
and never will cease, to beat with calm
and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise,
it will never cease to symbolize the
threefold love with which He is bound
to His heavenly Father and the entire
human race, of which He has every claim
to be the mystical Head.
64. And now, venerable brethren,
in order that we may be able to gather
from these holy considerations abundant
and salutary fruits, We desire to reflect
on and briefly contemplate the manifold
affections, human and divine, of our
Savior Jesus Christ which His Heart
made known to us during the course of
His mortal life and which It still does
and will continue to do for all eternity.
From the pages of the Gospel particularly
there shines forth for us the light,
by the brightness and strength of which
we can enter into the secret places
of this divine Heart and, with the Apostle
of the Gentiles, gaze at "the abundant
riches of (God's) grace, in his bounty
towards us in Christ Jesus."[57]
65. The adorable Heart of Jesus
Christ began to beat with a love at
once human and divine after the Virgin
Mary generously pronounced Her "Fiat";
and the Word of God, as the Apostle
remarks: "coming into the world,
saith, 'Sacrifice and oblation thou
wouldst not; but a body thou hast fitted
to Me; holocausts for sin did not please
thee. Then said I, "Behold I come";
in the head of the book it is written
of Me, "that I should do thy will,
O God!"'. . .In which will we are
sanctified by the oblation of the body
of Jesus Christ once."[58]
66. Likewise was He moved by
love, completely in harmony with the
affections of His human will and the
divine Love, when in the house of Nazareth
He conversed with His most sweet Mother
and His foster father, St. Joseph, in
obedience to whom He performed laborious
tasks in the trade of a carpenter.
67. Again, He was influenced
by that threefold love, of which We
spoke, during His public life: in long
apostolic journeys; in the working of
innumerable miracles, by which He summoned
back the dead from the grave or granted
health to all manner of sick persons;
in enduring labors; in bearing fatigue,
hunger and thirst; in the nightly watchings
during which He prayed most lovingly
to His Father; and finally, in His preaching
and in setting forth and explaining
His parables, in those particularly
which deal with mercy--the lost drachma,
the lost sheep, the prodigal son. By
these indeed both by act and by word,
as St. Gregory the Great notes, the
Heart of God Itself is revealed: "Learn
the Heart of God in the words of God,
that you may long more ardently for
things eternal."[59]
68. But the Heart of Jesus Christ
was moved by a more urgent charity when
from His lips were drawn words breathing
the most ardent love. Thus, to give
examples: when He was gazing at the
crowds weary and hungry, He exclaimed:
"I have compassion upon the crowd";[60]
and when He looked down on His beloved
city of Jerusalem, blinded by its sins,
and so destined for final ruin, He uttered
this sentence: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that slayest the prophets, and
stonest them that are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered together
thy children, as the hen doth gather
her chickens under her wings, and thou
wouldst not!"[61] And His Heart
beat with love for His Father and with
a holy anger when seeing the sacrilegious
buying and selling taking place in the
Temple, He rebuked the violators with
these words: "It is written: My
house shall be called a house of prayer;
but you have made it a den of thieves."[62]
69. But His Heart was moved
by a particularly intense love mingled
with fear as He perceived the hour of
His bitter torments drawing near and,
expressing a natural repugnance for
the approaching pains and death, He
cried out: "Father, if it be possible,
let this chalice pass from Me."[63]
And when He was greeted by the traitor
with a kiss, in love triumphant united
to deepest grief, He addressed to him
those words which seem to be the final
invitation of His most merciful Heart
to the friend who, obdurate in his wicked
treachery, was about to hand Him over
to His executioners: "Friend, whereto
art thou come? Dost thou betray the
Son of Man with a kiss?"[64] It
was out of pity and the depths of His
love that He spoke to the devout women
as they wept for Him on His way to the
unmerited penalty of the Cross: "Daughters
of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but
weep for yourselves and for your children.
. .For if in the green wood they do
these things, what shall be done in
the dry?"[65]
70. And when the divine Redeemer
was hanging on the Cross, He showed
that His Heart was strongly moved by
different emotions -- burning love,
desolation, pity, longing desire, unruffled
peace. The words spoken plainly indicate
these emotions: "Father, forgive
them; they know not what they do!"[66]
"My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me?"[67] "Amen, I
say to thee, this day thou shalt be
with Me in paradise."[68] "I
thirst."[69] "Father, into
Thy hands I commend My spirit."[70]
71. But who can worthily depict
those beatings of the divine Heart,
the signs of His infinite love, of those
moments when He granted men His greatest
gifts: Himself in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist, His most holy Mother, and
the office of the priesthood shared
with us?
72. Even before He ate the Last
Supper with His disciples Christ Our
Lord, since He knew He was about to
institute the sacrament of His body
and blood by the shedding of which the
new covenant was to be consecrated,
felt His heart roused by strong emotions,
which He revealed to the Apostles in
these words: "With desire have
I desired to eat this Pasch with you
before I suffer."[71] And these
emotions were doubtless even stronger
when "taking bread, He gave thanks,
and broke, and gave to them, saying,
'This is My body which is given for
you, this do in commemoration of Me.'
Likewise the chalice also, after He
had supped, saying, 'This chalice is
the new testament in My blood, which
shall be shed for you.'"[72]
73. It can therefore be declared
that the divine Eucharist, both the
sacrament which He gives to men and
the sacrifice in which He unceasingly
offers Himself from the rising of the
sun till the going down thereof,"[73]
and likewise the priesthood, are indeed
gifts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
74. Another most precious gift
of His Sacred Heart is, as We have said,
Mary the beloved Mother of God and the
most loving Mother of us all. She who
gave birth to our Savior according to
the flesh and was associated with Him
in recalling the children of Eve to
the life of divine grace has deservedly
been hailed as the spiritual Mother
of the whole human race. And so St.
Augustine writes of her: "Clearly
She is Mother of the members of the
Savior (which is what we are), because
She labored with Him in love that the
faithful who are members of the Head
might be born in the Church."[74]
75. To the unbloody gift of
Himself under the appearance of bread
and wine our Savior Jesus Christ wished
to join, as the chief proof of His deep
and infinite love, the bloody sacrifice
of the Cross. By this manner of acting
He gave an example of His supreme charity,
which He had proposed to His disciples
as the highest point of love in these
words: "Greater love than this
no man hath, that a man lay down his
life for his friends."[75]
76. Thus the love of Jesus Christ
the Son of God, by the sacrifice of
Golgotha, cast a flood of light on the
meaning of the love of God Himself:
"In this we know the charity of
God, because He hath laid down His life
for us, and we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren."[76] And
in truth it was more by love than by
the violence of the executioners that
our divine Redeemer was fixed to the
Cross; and His voluntary total offering
is the supreme gift which He gave to
each man, according to that terse saying
of the Apostles, "He loved me,
and delivered Himself for me."[77]
77. The Sacred Heart of Jesus
shares in a most intimate way in the
life of the Incarnate Word, and has
been thus assumed as a kind of instrument
of the Divinity. It is therefore beyond
all doubt that, in the carrying out
of works of grace and divine omnipotence,
His Heart, no less than the other members
of His human nature is also a legitimate
symbol of that unbounded love.[78]
78. Under the influence of this
love, our Savior, by the outpouring
of His blood, became wedded to His Church:
"By love, He allowed Himself to
be espoused to His Church."[79]
Hence, from the wounded Heart of the
Redeemer was born the Church, the dispenser
of the Blood of the Redemption--whence
flows that plentiful stream of Sacramental
grace from which the children of the
Church drink of eternal life, as we
read in the sacred liturgy: "From
the pierced Heart, the Church, the Bride
of Christ, is born....And He pours forth
grace from His Heart."[80]
79. Concerning the meaning of
this symbol, which was known even to
the earliest Fathers and ecclesiastical
writers, St. Thomas Aquinas, echoing
something of their words, writes as
follows: "From the side of Christ,
there flowed water for cleansing, blood
for redeeming. Hence blood is associated
with the sacrament of the Eucharist,
water with the sacrament of Baptism,
which has its cleansing power by virtue
of the blood of Christ."[81]
80. What is here written of
the side of Christ, opened by the wound
from the soldier, should also be said
of the Heart which was certainly reached
by the stab of the lance, since the
soldier pierced it precisely to make
certain that Jesus Christ crucified
was really dead. Hence the wound of
the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, now
that He has completed His mortal life,
remains through the course of the ages
a striking image of that spontaneous
charity by which God gave His only begotten
Son for the redemption of men and by
which Christ expressed such passionate
love for us that He offered Himself
as a bleeding victim on Calvary for
our sake: "Christ l
