Ever since the 17th Century, when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was granted visions of the Sacred Heart, the Jesuits have played a pivotal role in spreading this devotion and expounding its meaning for Christian life. In the middle decades of the twentieth century, however, many Jesuits felt called to explore new applications of the Gospel to Christian life, and the Sacred Heart devotion came to feature less prominently than before. In 1981, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, General of the Society of Jesus, spoke to his fellow Jesuits about the Sacred Heart. He fully appreciated the immense work they had done during his generalship, but he wanted to urge them not to forget the perennial relevance of the Sacred Heart to Jesuit life.
This devotion was, he said, “the centre of the Ignatian experience”. Like so many aspects of the Church’s spiritual life, it was in need of renewal, not abandonment. Let each Jesuit, Fr. Arrupe pleaded, discover in his own heart the enormous strength which derives from devotion to the Heart of Christ. Fr. Arrupe’s words are valuable for all Christians who wish to acquire that same strength during these days of June, the month of the Sacred Heart.
Since my novitiate, I have always been convinced that what we call ‘Devotion to the Sacred Heart’ is a symbolic expression of the very basis of the Ignatian spirit, and an extraordinarily effective means – ultra quam speraverint – as much for gaining personal perfection as for apostolic success. I still have this conviction. It may have seemed strange to some of you that during my Generalship I should have spoken relatively little on this theme. I did have a reason for this, which we might call a pastoral reason.
A supreme spirituality
In recent years the very expression ‘Sacred Heart’ has constantly aroused, from some quarters, emotional, almost allergic reactions, perhaps in part as a reaction against certain means of presentation and terminologies more suited to the tastes of an earlier time. Therefore it seemed to me to be advisable to allow a little time to pass, in the certainty that this attitude, which is emotional rather than rational, should die down somewhat.
I have always entertained the conviction that the high value of this profound spirituality would not be long in reestablishing itself in the esteem of all. For it is a spirituality which successive Roman Pontiffs have classed as ‘a supreme spirituality’. It is, moreover one which makes use of a biblical symbol, the heart, which itself is a ‘source word’ (Urwort).
For this reason, and very much in spite of myself, I have spoken and written relatively little about this theme, although I have often dealt with in more personal conversations, and in this devotion I myself possess one of the deepest sources of vitality for my interior life.
What the Sacred Heart means today
At the end of this series of conferences on the charisma of Ignatius, I could not but explain to the Society the reasons for this silence, which I hope you will understand. And at the same time, I have no wish to keep silence about my personal, profound conviction that all of us in this Society of Jesus should, before our crucifix, meditate and decide exactly what this devotion has meant and should mean today for the Society. In present circumstances, the world offers us challenges and opportunities which can only be solved with the strength of this love for the Heart of Christ.
This is the message which I want to share with you. It does not involve forcing things, nor ordering anything; for it is a matter into which each must enter by means of love. But I do say: think about it, and ‘reflect on what it might offer’. It would be very sad if, being in possession of such a great treasure for our personal and institutional spirituality, we should ignore it for unacceptable reasons.
An extraordinary gift
If you want my advice, after fifty-three years as a Jesuit and nearly sixteen as General, I would say to you that in this devotion to the Heart of Christ can be found an enormous strength; it is for each one of us to discover it – if you have not discovered it already – and apply it to your personal lives in the way that our Lord showed and granted it to us. It is an extraordinary gift offered to us by God.
The Society has need today of the ‘dynamism’ incorporated in this symbol and in that reality which helps us to understand it – -the love of the Sacred Heart of Christ. Perhaps what we need is an act of communal humility so that we might accept what the Supreme Pontiffs, the General Congregations and the Generals of the Society have always told us.
However, I am of the belief that there are very few proofs of the spiritual renewal of the Society of Jesus that could be as clear as an efficacious and general renewal of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Our apostolate would receive new courage, and we would not be long in seeing the effects, as much in our own personal lives as in our apostolic activities.
Become as little children
We must not fall into the trap of deceiving ourselves about a devotion expressed by a symbol or by a graphic representation of that symbol. Let us not join with the clever and learned men of this world from whom our Father hides his mysterious truths whilst revealing them to those who become as little children. Let us possess that simplicity of heart which is the prime condition for a profound conversion: ‘if you do not become as little children…’
Those are words of Christ, which could be interpreted thus: ‘If you, as individuals and as a Society, wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and help to build it with the greatest effectiveness, you must become like the poor people whom you wish to serve. How many times do you repeat that the poor have taught you more than many books? Learn from them this simple lesson, learn from my Heart of my Love’.
From “In Him Alone…Our Hope”, Irish Messenger Publications (Dublin, 1983).
