The heart of Jesus

The heart of Jesus, the brightest beauty …

Over the centuries, Christian iconography has developed the hallmarks of depicted saints through objects of symbolic significance. Sometimes these are objects common to a whole group of saints, as indicated by icons e.g. bishops with a scepter and a miter, martyrs with a palm branch, etc. In most cases, however, they are characters (attributes) individually, derived from the event of the saint’s life, from the legends told and, in the case of martyrs, from the way they are tortured. The way of depiction is different also according to the period of origin of artistic expression, e.g. Gothic, Baroque, etc. According to these signs, it is better to know which saint it is. Many saints are thus depicted with a heart – pierced, burning, wrapped in a crown of thorns, etc.

This is how Augustín, Brigita of Sweden, Filip Neri, František Saleský, František Xaverský, Ignác of Loyola, Jan František de Chantal, Katarína Sienská, Mária Magdaléna de Pazzi, Stanislav Kostka, Terézia Veľká are depicted. What did the artists want to say when they portrayed saints with hearts in this way? The human heart is given special importance: only to God is its mystery fully revealed. We should tremble with piety before this mysterious depth. It is for us the personification of humanity, the source by which the wealth of his personality springs from man. Only the heart can speak to the heart. In it is the true beauty, the real and eternal value of man. Man is as his heart is. That is why Christianity accepts this symbol. It expresses the hidden core of the personality.

This fact will help us understand what is the essence of our reverence for the Divine Heart of Jesus: The believer is captivated by knowing the fundamental truth of our redemption, namely, that God has accepted our human heart. Through Jesus’ Heart, we learn God’s eternal plan of salvation. It is a plan of love. There was hardly another way to better express that God really loves us humans! “What beautiful thing have you found for us, the Savior, that you have loved us so much? “, we sing with the Church in the evening feast of the Divine Heart. That is why we confess about it: The Heart of Jesus, the brightest beauty …

Almighty God could have arranged otherwise to announce salvation to us. An angel could have told us, a prophet could have called us to repentance. However, he knew that only such a thing would affect a person, she would be able to move him, it would affect his heart. And only the language of the heart affects the heart. That is why God accepted the human heart to speak to people in a language that everyone understands – not only the smart and educated, but also the simple and the children. Not everyone has a head to understand great thoughts, but everyone who has a piece of a good human heart will understand when they hear that someone has shed the last blood of their heart to save him from death. Practice also confirms to us that if someone was obtained for Christ, it did not happen through the path of argument, logic, reason, but through the path of the heart. Even the most accurate evidence is cold, because it is not overheated by a good heart, kindness of personality. Herein was the mystery of the effectiveness of Christ’s words on men, that is the mystery of the proclamation of God to this day. Already in the Old Testament, the idea is repeated that only God can enter the human heart (Ps. 7: 10; Ps. 44: 22, etc.). The Gospel also assures us that the heart is an organ for receiving God’s word and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, into which God’s love flows (cf. Mt 13:19; Mark 4:15; Luke 8:15; Acts 2:27; Rom. 2, 15; Gal 4, 6; 1 Cor 1, 22, et al.). Only those with a pure heart will see God (cf. Mt 5: 8). Even Christ cannot be received other than through the heart (cf. Eph 3:17). Heart of St. Augustine was not convinced by the arguments of theologians, but by the kind and fatherly words of Bishop Ambrose. In a book about his conversion (Confessions), he writes that he wept when he heard us sing hymns and songs. They deeply penetrated his heart and awakened piety in him. Therefore, writes St. Makarius: “The spiritual life springs in the spaces of the heart as soon as two mysterious beings meet here – God and man. “Much has already been written about what the hidden power of the Church is, her attraction, which is gaining more and more adherents in all ages, generations and social strata. We Christians know the reason: Christ’s Divine Heart beats in the Church – but secretly but effectively This is the power that can do more than preach, which attracts the heart of a man who may have parted ways with the Church at a young age, lives unchristian, but still has a sensitive place in his heart of affection for the Church of his childhood.

With the heart one understands rather than reason with reason. And as long as man’s heart remains human, he can never completely break and discard the love of Christ. So that is the essence and sense of respect