The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is normally celebrated on the Friday after our Sunday celebration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which would have been Friday of this last week, June 12. However, this past Thursday, as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. bishops at their meeting in Orlando consecrated the United States to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. Parishes around the country are encouraged to join the bishops in celebrating the consecration of our nation to the Sacred Heart, so Bishop Kopacz has declared that in our Diocese, we are to celebrate the Sacred Heart this weekend with the Catholic faithful. This consecration of our country follows in the tradition of Pope Leo XIII consecrating the entire human race to the Sacred Heart in 1899. Now in the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, we consecrate our country to Jesus’ Sacred Heart.
Most of you know that I have a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which has grown in the time I have been a priest. I brought the first Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart to the parishes in Pearl and Clinton where I have served as pastor. I absolutely love that devotion and love celebrating that Mass in our parish in Clinton each month. When I took my profession of vows as a secular Carmelite a couple of years ago, I was asked to choose a Carmelite name for myself, and with the help of the Carmelite sisters, I chose Father Lincoln of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a name that I truly love and appreciate.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has developed throughout the history of the Church. Visitation sister St Margaret Mary Alacoque had visions of the pierced and bleeding heart of Jesus with flames and a crown of thorns starting in 1673 while she was praying before the blessed sacrament. These apparitions focused on God’s love and mercy. During one of these visions in 1675, Jesus asked that feast on the Friday after the solemnity of the most holy body and blood of Christ be established, which leads to our celebration today. St Margaret Mary’s visions also lead to the first Friday devotion that we celebrate at our parish each month.
English theologian Cardinal John Henry Newman, who was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV, took his motto from the Sacred Heart of Jesus: cor ad cor loquitur - heart speaks to heart. Newman believed that beyond any thoughts or ideas, Jesus saves us by speaking to our hearts from his own heart. Newman most profoundly encountered the living heart of Jesus in the eucharist. He saw the eucharist as having the capability of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of life and bestowing God’s peace upon us.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is oriented toward the Eucharist. We receive the heart of Jesus when we receive the eucharist at Mass. The heart is one of the most vital organs of our human body. When we receive Jesus, we receive his very heart with which he loves us and calls us to follow him as his disciples. In our Catholic faith, we should connect the Sacred Heart to our love of the eucharist.
In his last encyclical written in October 2025, Pope Francis wrote on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Francis stated: “before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put (his words) into practice…. Only the heart is capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience before the Lord.”
As we reflect upon Jesus’ sacred heart, our own hearts are to be touched by his death on a cross, by the way the soldier thrust a lance into his side, out of which blood and water flowed. The great Church theologian St Augustine of Hippo saw Christ as the door through which we enter for salvation; that door was opened for us by his death and resurrection, by the soldier’s lance that opened his side. We choose where we want to enter Christ, to enter from his side as he hung dying upon the cross, the side from which the blood and water flowed. The purification we receive from Christ is the water that flowed from his side. The redemption we receive from him is his blood shed for us.
Jesus’s profound love for us is demonstrated through his willingness to sacrifice his life for the sake of all humanity. The love which emanated from Jesus’ heart motivated all his actions. However, humanity often received Jesus’ love with ingratitude. The purpose of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to focus our hearts on receiving and returning his love with gratitude: with our hearts, our souls, and our strength, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. As our world continues to attach itself to secularism, atheism, agnosticism, apathy, injustices, indifferences, and a rejection of faith, we are in need of the power of God's love more than ever, which makes the devotion to the Sacred Heart an important message to the world.
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