What If You Could Actually Have the Heart of Jesus?
“They said to one another, “‘Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?’” - Luke 24:32, WEB-BE
We have often used the phrase “having the heart of Jesus” as a metaphor. But what if we could actually have His heart?
A story was told about St. Catherine of Siena in an autobiography written by Blessed Raymond. In an account given by the saint herself, she confessed that Jesus took her heart and after that, He gave her His own heart!
Following is an excerpt from the saint’s biography:
One day, in the fervor of her prayer, she said with the Prophet : “Create within me God a new heart". And supplicated our Lord to condescend to take away her own heart and her own will. It seemed to her that her Spouse presented himself to her, opened her left side, took out her heart and carried it with him, so that in reality she no longer perceived it in her breast.
This vision was striking and her attendant symptoms agreed with it so well, that when she spoke of it to her Confessor, she assured him that she had really no heart. Her Confessor began to laugh, and rebuked her for saying any thing of the kind, but she only renewed her assurance. "Really, Father," said she to him, "as far as I can judge of what I experience in my person, it seems to me that I have no heart. The Lord appeared to me, opened my left side, drew out my heart, and went away." And, as her Confessor declared to her that it would be impossible to live without any heart, she answered that nothing was impossible with God, and that she had a heart no longer.
Some days later, she was in the Chapel of the Church of the Friar Preachers, in which the Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic assemble : she remained there alone so as to continue her prayer, and was disposing herself to return home, when on a sudden she saw herself environed with a light from Heaven, and amid this light, the Saviour appeared to her, bearing in his sacred hands a Heart of vermillion hue and radiating fire.
Deeply affected with this presence and this splendor, she prostrated herself on the ground. Our Lord approached, opened anew her left side, placed in it the Heart which he bore, and said to her: 'Daughter, the other day I took thy heart, today I give thee mine, and this will henceforward serve thee' After these weds he closed her breast ; but, as a token of the miracle, he left there a cicatrice that her companions have frequently assured me they had seen, and when I questioned her pointedly on this subject, she avowed to me that the incident was really true, and that from that period she had adopted the custom of saying : 'My God, I recommend to thee thy Heart."
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.” - Psalm 51:10, WEB-BE
I can’t remember if I have ever directly prayed for it, but I know deep within me that I have wanted to have a heart like the heart of Jesus. A heart that is soft, compassionate and true. A heart that loves with a pure love.
With a heart like that, I wouldn't cause pain to other people, especially to the ones I love the most. With a heart like that, I won't be selfish, impatient or unkind. I'd have a heart that desires only for the good of another. A heart that does not easily give up when times seem too difficult to bear.
What I must remember, however, is that the heart of Jesus is a heart that is not only aflame with love. It is also a heart that is crowned with thorns. A heart that bleeds. A heart that is willing to love to the very end.
And it's not easy to overcome the fear of suffering. Am I willing to love like that?
On the other side of this, however, is a heart that is as cold as ice. A stone heart. A rotten and dead heart. It knows no pain because it is numb and because it no longer lives.
The author C.S. Lewis couldn’t have said it better:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless it will change. It will not be broken ; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
I now have a deeper idea what a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus truly is. It’s a devotion to His suffering heart of love. A heart that continues to bless us despite being offended by our sins. A heart that is so merciful it is willing to forgive us again and again for as long as we sincerely ask for forgiveness.
If you have not yet made a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, you may wish to see the many promises our Lord has attached to it for those who will truly honor His Sacred Heart.
Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will comfort them in their trials.
4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and, above all, in death.
5. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings
6. Sinners will find in My Heart an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Lukewarm souls will become fervent.
8. Fervent souls will rapidly grow in holiness and perfection.
9. I will bless every place where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. The names of those who promote this devotion will be written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
12. I promise thee, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of “In Your Hour of Grief”, “To Love an Invisible God” , Mend My Broken Heart and “366 Days of Compassion”. For updates, freebies and regular emails, subscribe to her Newsletter at catholicdiary.substack.com— **CLICK HERE**.