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 eighth of the thirty-three invocations: Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity.
The eighth invocation of the Litany of the Sacred Heart identifies a burning furnace of charity.
How is the Sacred Heart of Jesus a burning furnace? Famous furnaces in Sacred Scripture include that found in Daniel 3:6-97 where with Misach and Abdenago he was preserved by one “like the son of God” from the furnace seven times hotter than normal. God’s love for us revealed in the passion of Christ Jesus, the Eternal Son of God made man, is greater than a furnace stoked seven times. Authentic depictions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus include flames above the Heart, reminding us of Christ’s burning love for both the Father and us. With other furnaces in Sacred Scripture providing images of purification (cf. Proverbs 17:3; 27:21; Isaiah 48:10) we are reminded how the passion which the Sacred Heart underwent on Good Friday purifies us from our sins. For those who refuse to love God with all their heart, mind and soul, the Lord Jesus Himself invokes a furnace as a place of punishment where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (cf. Matthew 12:30; 13:42, 50; 22:37; Luke 10:27).
How is the Sacred Heart of Jesus emblematic of charity? In the Douay translation there are nearly ninety verses of Sacred Scripture which invoke charity. Perhaps the greatest passage is 1 John 4:8b: God is charity (Deus caritas est). The Greek word agape used here by Saint John includes a sense of love founded in admiration, veneration and esteem, differing from the Latin amare which is a more emotional sort of “love,” while eros has to do with sexual love coming from the name of the pagan goddess Aphrodite’s son. The Lord Jesus, anticipating His self-offering on Good Friday, teaches us clearly that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life (cf. John 15:13; the Greek here is agape, St. Jerome’s Latin is dilectionem, while the Douay has “love”).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr