In the heart of the Church, the mediation of Mary, as our intercessor and mother, can only be understood as “a sharing in the one source, which is the mediation of Christ himself”, 176SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987), 38: AAS 79 (1987), 411. the sole Redeemer. For this reason, “the Church does not hesitate to profess the subordinate role of Mary”. 177SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 62. Devotion to the heart of Mary in no way detracts from the sole worship due the heart of Christ, but rather increases it: “Mary’s function as mother of humanity in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power”. 178Ibid., 60. Thanks to the abundant graces streaming from the open side of Christ, in different ways the Church, the Virgin Mary and all believers become themselves streams of living water. In this way, Christ displays his glory in and through our littleness.
Saint Bernard, in exhorting us to union with the heart of Christ, draws upon the richness of this devotion to call for a conversion grounded in love. Bernard believed that our affections, enslaved by pleasures, may nonetheless be transformed and set free, not by blind obedience to a commandment but rather in response to the delectable love of Christ. Evil is overcome by good, conquered by the flowering of love: “Love the Lord your God with the full and deep affection of all your heart; love him with your mind wholly alert and intent; love him with all your strength, so much so that you would not even fear to die for love of him… Your affection for the Lord Jesus should be both sweet and intimate, to oppose the sweet enticements of the sensual life. Sweetness conquers sweetness, as one nail drives out another”. 179Sermones super Cant., XX, 4: PL 183, 869.
Saint Francis de Sales was particularly taken by Jesus’ words, “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart” ( Mt 11:29). Even in the most simple and ordinary things, he said, we can “steal” the Lord’s heart. “Those who would serve him acceptably must give heed not only to lofty and important matters, but to things mean and little, since by both alike we may win his heart and love… I mean the acts of daily forbearance, the headache, the toothache, the heavy cold; the tiresome peculiarities of a husband or wife, the broken glass, the loss of a ring, a handkerchief, a glove; the sneer of a neighbour; the effort of going to bed early in order to rise early for prayer or communion, the little shyness some people feel in openly performing religious duties… Be sure that all these sufferings, small as they are, if accepted lovingly, are most pleasing to God’s goodness”. 180Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, xxxv. Ultimately, however, our response to the love of the heart of Christ is manifested in love of our neighbour: “a love that is firm, constant, steady, unconcerned with trivial matters or people’s station in life, not subject to changes or animosity… Our Lord loves us unceasingly, puts up with so many of our defects and our flaws. Precisely because of this, we must do the same with our brothers and sisters, never tiring of putting up with them”. 181Sermon for the XVII Sunday after Pentecost.
Saint Charles de Foucauld sought to imitate Jesus by living and acting as he did, in a constant effort to do what Jesus would have done in his place. Only by being conformed to the sentiments of the heart of Christ could he fully achieve this goal. Here too we find the idea of “love for love”. In his words, “I desire sufferings in order to return love for love, to imitate him… to enter into his work, to offer myself with him, the nothingness that I am, as a sacrifice, as a victim, for the sanctification of men”. 182Écrits spirituels, Paris 1947, 67. The desire to bring the love of Jesus to others, his missionary outreach to the poorest and most forgotten of our world, led him to take as his emblem the words, “Iesus-Caritas”, with the symbol of the heart of Christ surmounted by a cross. 183After 19 March 1902, all his letters begin with the words Jesus Caritas separated by a heart surmounted by the cross. Nor was this a light decision: “With all my strength I try to show and prove to these poor lost brethren that our religion is all charity, all fraternity, and that its emblem is a heart”. 184Letter to l’Abbé Huvelin, 15 July 1904. He wanted to settle with other brothers “in Morocco, in the name of the heart of Jesus”. 185Letter to Dom Martin, 25 January 1903. In this way, their evangelizing work could radiate outwards: “Charity has to radiate from our fraternities, as it radiates from the heart of Jesus”. 186Cited in RENÉ VOILLAUME , Les fraternités du Père de Foucauld, Paris, 1946, 173. This desire gradually made him a “universal brother”. Allowing himself to be shaped by the heart of Christ, he sought to shelter the whole of suffering humanity in his fraternal heart: “Our heart, like that of Jesus, must embrace all men and women”. 187Méditations des saints Évangiles sur les passages relatifs à quinze vertus, Nazareth, 1897-1898, Charité ( Mt 13:3), 60. “The love of the heart of Jesus for men and women, the love that he demonstrated in his passion, this is what we need to have for all human beings”. 188Ibid., Charité ( Mt 22:1), 90.
Father Henri Huvelin, the spiritual director of Saint Charles de Foucauld, observed that, “when our Lord dwells in a heart, he gives it such sentiments, and this heart reaches out to the least of our brothers and sisters. Such was the heart of Saint Vincent de Paul… When our Lord lives in the soul of a priest, he makes him reach out to the poor”. 189H. HUVELIN, Quelques directeurs d’âmes au XVII siècle, Paris, 1911, 97. It is important to realize that the apostolic zeal of Saint Vincent, as Father Huvelin describes it, was also nurtured by devotion to the heart of Christ. Saint Vincent urged his confreres to “find in the heart of our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person”. 190Conference, “Service of the Sick and Care of One’s own Health”, 11 November 1657. If that word is to be convincing, our own heart must first have been changed by the love and tenderness of the heart of Christ. Saint Vincent often reiterated this conviction in his homilies and counsels, and it became a notable feature of the Constitutions of his Congregation: “We should make a great effort to learn the following lesson, also taught by Christ: ‘Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart’. We should remember that he himself said that by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply”. 191Common Rules of the Congregation of the Mission, 17 May 1658, c. 2, 6.