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 third of the thirty-three invocations: Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is at once a human heart and the Heart of God. The Eternal Father does not have a physical heart, nor does the Holy Spirit, only the Eternal Son made man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Eternal Word spoken by the Father who has become flesh (cf. John 1:14). When the Litany uses the term “substantially” it is at once devotional and metaphysical. Our friends at Oxford University Press give seven different definitions for “substance” including a reference to a certain matter (e.g. the wood of the Cross, the stone tablets used by Moses…) but also the “basis of reality or fact.” The etymology of substance comes from the compounding of under (sub) and being/essence (ousia). The beingness of the Trinity and the incarnate Christ has classically used the Greek term homoousion as found in the teachings of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) in the face of the Arian heresy. For his part, Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) has written nearly eighty pages On being and essence (Toronto, Canada: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1968.).
By grace and faith and the sacraments, especially Baptism and Eucharist, we are able to be united with Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the very Word of God ourselves. The Lord who calls us to holiness allows us to be united with Him and through Him and in Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit. How could any follower of the Lord Jesus not want to be devoted and united to His Sacred Heart? The love of the Lord Jesus for us with his Sacred heart is at once a human, natural love and divine love. The love of God is at the heart of divine revelation: Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) as we read in1 John 4:16. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is both the sign and symbol of this two-fold love.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr