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 tenth of the thirty-three invocations: Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love.
What does it mean to say that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is full of goodness? One of the “fruits of the Spirit” is “goodness” (Galatians 5:22). The Spirit “gives” goodness which is a divine attribute. In light of the unity of the Trinity, the divine attribute of goodness is shared among the Three Divine Persons equally. It should be no wonder that the Heart of God is full of goodness (cf. Galatians 5:22). Saint Paul was convinced that his brothers and sisters in the faith were “full of goodness” (cf. Romans 15:14). How much more so is Christ and His Sacred Heart! The “goodness and love”of the Lord for which Saint David prays to follow him all his days are again a divine attributes shared equally by the Divine Persons, such that, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ the Eternal Son made man is full of goodness and love (cf. Psalm 23:6). Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) addresses the goodness of God as a divine attribute in Summa Theologiae I Q. 6, A. 1-4, citing Lamentations 3:25: “The Lord is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeks Him.” Not only is the Lord good to these souls, He is good in Himself, the origin and end or goal of all goodness. Saint Augustine (+430) further reminds us that God is the supreme good discerned by purified souls” (De Trinitate ii). Jesus Christ is God incarnate and His Sacred Heart is, accordingly, full of the supreme goodness of God.
When considering the Sacred Heart of Jesus being full of love we should recall how on 16 June, 1675, at the Visitation Convent in Paral-le-Monial, France, the Lord Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (+1690) saying: “Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself.” This Heart loves us still.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr