When Saint Claude de La Colombière learned of the experiences of Saint Margaret Mary, he immediately undertook her defence and began to spread word of the apparitions. Saint Claude played a special role in developing the understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart and its meaning in the light of the Gospel.
Some of the language of Saint Margaret Mary, if poorly understood, might suggest undue trust in our personal sacrifices and offerings. Saint Claude insists that contemplation of the heart of Jesus, when authentic, does not provoke self-complacency or a vain confidence in our own experiences or human efforts, but rather an ineffable abandonment in Christ that fills our life with peace, security and decision. He expressed this absolute confidence most eloquently in a celebrated prayer: “My God, I am so convinced that you keep watch over those who hope in you, and that we can want for nothing when we look for all in you, that I am resolved in the future to live free from every care and to turn all my anxieties over to you... I shall never lose my hope. I shall keep it to the last moment of my life; and at that moment all the demons in hell will strive to tear it from me… Others may look for happiness from their wealth or their talents; others may rest on the innocence of their life, or the severity of their penance, or the amount of their alms, or the fervour of their prayers. As for me, Lord, all my confidence is confidence itself. This confidence has never deceived anyone… I am sure, therefore, that I shall be eternally happy, since I firmly hope to be, and because it is from you, O God, that I hope for it”. 119Sermon on Trust in God, in Œuvres du R.P de La Colombière, t. 5, Perisse, Lyon, 1854, p. 100.
In a note of January 1677, after mentioning the assurance he felt regarding his mission, Claude continued: “I have come to know that God wanted me to serve him by obtaining the fulfilment of his desires regarding the devotion that he suggested to a person to whom he communicates in confidence, and for whose sake he has desired to make use of my weakness. I have already used it to help several persons”. 120Spiritual Exercises in London, 1-8 February 1677, in Œuvres du R.P de La Colombière, t. 7, Seguin, Avignon, 1832, p. 93.
It should be recognized that the spirituality of Blessed Claude de La Colombière resulted in a fine synthesis of the profound and moving spiritual experience of Saint Margaret Mary and the vivid and concrete form of contemplation found in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola. At the beginning of the third week of the Exercises, Claude reflected: “Two things have moved me in a striking way. First, the attitude of Christ towards those who sought to arrest him. His heart is full of bitter sorrow; every violent passion is unleashed against him and all nature is in turmoil, yet amid all this confusion, all these temptations, his heart remains firmly directed to God. He does not hesitate to take the part that virtue and the highest virtue suggested to him. Second, the attitude of that same heart towards Judas who betrayed him, the apostles who cravenly abandoned him, the priests and the others responsible for the persecution he suffered; none of these things was able to arouse in him the slightest sentiment of hatred or indignation. I present myself anew to this heart free of anger, free of bitterness, filled instead with genuine compassion towards its enemies”. 121Spiritual Exercises in Lyon, October-November 1674, ibid., p. 45.