My dear parishioners,
Peace! The Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions the Heart of Jesus variously. “Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since His Passover. The phrase ‘heart of Christ’ can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known His heart, closed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure” (CCC, 112; cf. Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; Psalm 22:14). how in view of the incarnation He loves with a human heart, and “the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation ‘is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that … love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings’ without exception” (cf. CCC, 470, 478; John 19:34; Pius XII Encyclical Haurietis aquas). One form of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here we consider the first of the thirty-three invocations: Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father born in the fullness of time. This invocation in the Litany calls to mind both time and eternity. The Hebrew term for eternity is olam, while the Greek is aion. The Aramaic term shata meaning “hour” stands for an indefinite period of time (cf. Daniel 4:33; 5:5), while the Hebrew yom translates as day.
While the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father has existed eternally (cf. Matthew 1:18-2:1; John 1:1-14). The relationship between the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son is an eternal relationship, extending both before and after the incarnation. The relationship between the Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother began at a particular time and will continue into all eternity. It was only once the Blessed Virgin Mary agreed to God’s plan for our salvation that the Lord Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 1:26-38). Doctors at the Mayo Clinic point out that four weeks after conception the baby’s heart pumps blood. This means that naturally, humanly speaking, the Sacred Heart of Jesus began pumping His precious blood within so many weeks of Mary’s saying yes. Here we can see the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart physically close together, a closeness which will continue even after the Christmas mystery, at Cana, on Calvary, and even still in Heaven.
We are adopted sons and daughters of God thanks to the incarnation, God’s becoming man in Christ Jesus, Eternal Son of the Eternal Father and son of Mary. The precious blood which the unborn Sacred Heart pumped He received from Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. Their hearts beat in unison then and still now. When we think and feel with Our Lord and Our Lady then our hearts too beat as one with them.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr