The Feast of the Sacred Heart—June 7

Even after more than 60 years since my education by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, this feast still captures my attention, still intrigues by its contradictions. On the negative side, the fierce discipline, the obsession with rules, silence and order might have been simply the products of an era when few schools were enlightened or creative. Some friends have worse horror tales from crazier nuns and more uptight Catholic schools. We may not have been encouraged to be especially innovative, but we were never physically punished. We may have sung maudlin hymns, but we were never subjected to a Mel Gibson-style obsession with the grotesque details of the crucifixion.

On the positive side, I still remember a statue of Jesus as the Sacred Heart which stood outside our school. It had the odd heart-outside-the-body typical of sentimental art. But more important: his arms were flung wide in welcome. His hands didn’t hurl thunderbolts, tick off lists of wrongdoing, or brandish law books.

The stance epitomized the insight of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, credited with popularizing devotion to the Sacred Heart. “The divine heart…is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness…” When she tried to convince others of this broadly inclusive approach, authorities called her delusional. Indeed, she had made a huge stride forward from 17^th century piety, with its emphasis on the externals of religion.

The inclusive tone of today’s feast is consistent with Julian of Norwich’s writing in The Showings about God as mother. “In the sight of God, we do not fall” (p. 222) because we are always graciously enfolded in love. Just as a mother brims with pride in her child, so we too are God’s joy, treasure and delight (p. 228). I’ve written about Julian in other places; thanks to a Sacred Heart education for the assurance that God can’t not love.