Under the salutary influence of this Salesian spirituality, the events of Paray-le-Monial took place at the end of the seventeenth century. Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque reported a remarkable series of apparitions of Christ between the end of December 1673 and June of 1675. Fundamental to these was a declaration of love that stood out in the first apparition. Jesus said: “My divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular, that, no longer able to contain in itself the flames of its ardent charity, it must pour them out through you and be manifested to them, in order to enrich them with its precious treasures which I now reveal to you”. 111SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE, Autobiography, n. 53.
Saint Margaret Mary’s account is powerful and deeply moving: “He revealed to me the wonders of his love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart which he had hitherto kept hidden from me, until he opened it to me for the first time, in such a striking and sensible manner that he left me no room for doubt”. 112Ibid. In subsequent appearances, that consoling message was reiterated: “He revealed to me the ineffable wonders of his pure love and to what extremes it had led him to love mankind”. 113Ibid., n. 55.
This powerful realization of the love of Jesus Christ bequeathed to us by Saint Margaret Mary can spur us to greater union with him. We need not feel obliged to accept or appropriate every detail of her spiritual experience, in which, as often happens, God’s intervention combines with human elements related to the individual’s own desires, concerns and interior images. 114Cf. DICASTERY FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena, 17 May 2024, I, A, 12. Such experiences must always be interpreted in the light of the Gospel and the rich spiritual tradition of the Church, even as we acknowledge the good they accomplish in many of our brothers and sisters. In this way, we can recognize the gifts of the Holy Spirit present in those experiences of faith and love. More important than any individual detail is the core of the message handed on to us, which can be summed up in the words heard by Saint Margaret Mary: “This is the heart that so loved human beings that it has spared nothing, even to emptying and consuming itself in order to show them its love”. 115SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE, Autobiography, n. 92.
This apparition, then, invites us to grow in our encounter with Christ, putting our trust completely in his love, until we attain full and definitive union with him. “It is necessary that the divine heart of Jesus in some way replace our own; that he alone live and work in us and for us; that his will… work absolutely and without any resistance on our part; and finally that its affections, thoughts and desires take the place of our own, especially his love, so that he is loved in himself and for our sakes. And so, this lovable heart being our all in all, we can say with Saint Paul that we no longer live our own lives, but it is he who lives within us”. 116Letter to Sœur de la Barge, 22 October 1689.
In the first message that Saint Margaret Mary received, this invitation was expressed in vivid, fervent and loving terms. “He asked for my heart, which I asked him to take, which he did and then placed myself in his own adorable heart, from which he made me see mine like a little atom consumed in the fiery furnace of his own”. 117Autobiography, n. 53.
At another point, we see that the one who gives himself to us is the risen and glorified Christ, full of life and light. If indeed, at different times, he spoke of the suffering that he endured for our sake and of the ingratitude with which it is met, what we see here are not so much his blood and painful wounds, but rather the light and fire of the Lord of life. The wounds of the passion have not disappeared, but are now transfigured. Here we see the paschal mystery in all its splendour: “Once, when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, Jesus appeared, resplendent in glory, with his five wounds that appeared as so many suns blazing forth from his sacred humanity, but above all from his adorable breast, which seemed a fiery furnace. Opening his robe, he revealed his most loving and lovable heart, which was the living source of those flames. Then it was that I discovered the ineffable wonders of his pure love, with which he loves men to the utmost, yet receives from them only ingratitude and indifference”. 118Ibid., n. 55.