Jesus’ Heart Invites Return to Father’s LoveRead Time 9 min

I live in a parish rectory on the South Side of Milwaukee, and whenever I come home, the first thing that I see is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a pierced heart, ablaze and surrounded by a crown of thorns. A former parishioner of mine gave it to me when I was ordained a bishop. It is a constant reminder to me to meditate on the love and the mercy of Christ.

This year, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus falls on Friday, June 27. It is a day to contemplate the human heart of Jesus, which represents the love of God for us. In the Sacred Scriptures, the human heart is much more than a physical organ. It is the center of the human being, a place of consciousness and discernment, the fount of passion and love.

The celebration of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us that Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, both human and divine, conformed his own heart to the will of God the Father. We believe that the way to the Father is found in our relationship with Jesus the Christ. We also believe that Jesus wills to unite his heart with our own, in order that we might learn to live according to the Father’s will, becoming loving, compassionate persons willing to serve God and others.

St. Francis de Sales, known as the “Doctor of Divine Love,” was not as explicitly linked to devotion to the Sacred Heart as was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who received a series of apparitions of the Sacred Heart between 1673 and 1675. However, he was certainly devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There is a famous prayer attributed to St. Francis de Sales that speaks of the Heart of Jesus, which includes the words, “May your heart dwell always in our hearts! May your blood ever flow in the veins of our souls!”

When I was pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Lake Geneva, we went through the process of renovating and restoring the interior of our church, and we were planning to put a new stained-glass window into the sanctuary. When I was asked what kind of image I would like to see depicted in this window, I answered without hesitation, “The Sacred Heart of Jesus.” That image now illuminates the parish church with vibrant, bold colors — an image of love, compassion and mercy. The Sacred Heart of Jesus refers the very center of Christ’s humanity, the place of his freedom, affectivity and surrender to the mystery of God.

St. John Paul II was very devoted to the Sacred Heart. In the “Letter of John Paul II on the 100th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Human Race to the Divine Heart of Jesus,” written in 1999, the pope wrote, “The Savior’s Heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love: ‘In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation of our sins’ (1 John 4:10).”

The Sacred Heart is an image that reminds us that we are saved not by our own merits but rather by the overflowing love of God. God calls us to conversion and opens our hearts to acceptance of divine love.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of God’s mercy represented by the Sacred Heart. In his “Homily for the Opening of the Year of Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the Death of Saint John Mary Vianney,” delivered on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 2009, he said, “The heart of God burns with compassion! On today’s Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church presents us this mystery for our contemplation: the mystery of the heart of a God who feels compassion and bestows all his love upon humanity. A mysterious love, which in the texts of the New Testament is revealed to us as God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind.”

God’s love is freely given — it is a love that transforms us that we might conform our hearts to his own. God’s love is limitless — it comforts us in our struggles and fills us with hope.

Pope Francis wrote an encyclical letter on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is titled Dilexit nos, which means, “He loved us,” from Romans 8:37. The encyclical was promulgated in 2024. In it, Pope Francis wrote about the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus. In the final chapter of this encyclical, he wrote that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus motivates us to reach out to our brothers and sisters to extend the love and the mercy of God to them.

Pope Francis wrote, “In contemplation the pierced heart of the Lord, who ‘took our infirmities and bore our diseases’ (Matthew 8:17), we too are inspired to be more attentive to the sufferings and needs of others and confirmed in our efforts to share in his work of liberation as instruments for the spread of his love. As we meditate on Christ’s self-offering for the sake of all, we are naturally led to ask why we should not be ready to give our lives for others: ‘We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and that we ought to lay down our lives for one another’ (1 John 3:16).” (Dilexit nos, 171)

The love of God makes us instruments of his love and mercy. It is a love that makes it possible for us to cooperate with his grace, extending his healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and mercy to others. May our contemplation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus inspire us to be conduits of God’s love in this world.