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 fifteenth of the thirty-three invocations: Heart of Jesus, In whom the Father was well pleased.
Why is the Father well pleased with the Sacred Heart of Jesus? In Sacred Scripture we can read repeatedly how the Eternal Father is “well pleased” with the Eternal Son made man Jesus Christ our Lord (cf. Mark 1:11; Matthew 17:5). The Father is pleased with the Sacred Heart of His Son because there is no guile or deceit within it (cf. John 1:47). The heart is not only symbolic of the person but also of the will or desire(s) of the person. In the case of the Sacred Heart, it represents the Divine Person of the Eternal Son made man Christ Jesus the Lord and all that He wills and desires. In the Lord’s Prayer our Savior Jesus Christ teaches us the importance of desiring the will of the Father: “Thy will be done…” (Matthew 6:10). He also shows how united His human will is to the divine will of the Father in His Agony in the Garden “your will be done…” (cf. Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42). The pleasure which the Eternal Father has in the Sacred Heart of Jesus is echoed in Colossians 1:19: “Because in Him, it has well pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell.” The fullness of life, goodness, truth, beauty, holiness and grace are all within the Sacred Heart of Jesus and give the Eternal Father more than enough reason to be well pleased.
When we show our love and devotion for the Sacred Heart of Jesus the Father is well pleased in us. The more we fill our hearts with goodness, truth and beauty the Father is well pleased in us. The more we unite our wills to that of the Eternal Father our hearts are conformed to that Sacred Heart in which the Father is well pleased. All of this is possible thanks to the grace and mercy which flow from the Sacred Heart into our hearts.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr