Nor do we remain only on the level of the Lord’s human feelings, beautiful and moving as they are. In contemplating Christ’s heart we also see how, in his fine and noble sentiments, his kindness and gentleness and his signs of genuine human affection, the deeper truth of his infinite divine love is revealed. In the words of Benedict XVI, “from the infinite horizon of his love, God wished to enter into the limits of human history and the human condition. He took on a body and a heart. Thus, we can contemplate and encounter the infinite in the finite, the invisible and ineffable mystery in the human heart of Jesus the Nazarene”. 43Angelus, 1 June 2008: L’Osservatore Romano, 2-3 June 2008, p. 1.
The image of the Lord’s heart speaks to us in fact of a threefold love. First, we contemplate his infinite divine love. Then our thoughts turn to the spiritual dimension of his humanity, in which the heart is “the symbol of that most ardent love which, infused into his soul, enriches his human will”. Finally, “it is a symbol also of his sensible love”. 44PIUS XII, Encyclical Letter Haurietis Aquas (15 May 1956), II: AAS 48 (1956), 327-328.
These three loves are not separate, parallel or disconnected, but together act and find expression in a constant and vital unity. For “by faith, through which we believe that the human and divine nature were united in the Person of Christ, we can see the closest bonds between the tender love of the physical heart of Jesus and the twofold spiritual love, namely human and divine”. 45Ibid.: AAS 48 (1956), 343-344.
Entering into the heart of Christ, we feel loved by a human heart filled with affections and emotions like our own. Jesus’ human will freely choose to love us, and that spiritual love is flooded with grace and charity. When we plunge into the depths of his heart, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the immense glory of his infinite love as the eternal Son, which we can no longer separate from his human love. It is precisely in his human love, and not apart from it, that we encounter his divine love: we discover “the infinite in the finite”. 46BENEDICT XVI, Angelus, 1 June 2008: L’Osservatore Romano, 2-3 June 2008, p. 1.
It is the constant and unequivocal teaching of the Church that our worship of Christ’s person is undivided, inseparably embracing both his divine and his human natures. From ancient times, the Church has taught that we are to “adore one and the same Christ, the Son of God and of man, consisting of and in two inseparable and undivided natures”. 47VIGILIUS, Constitution Inter Innumeras Sollicitudines (14 May 553): DH 420. And we do so “with one act of adoration… inasmuch as the Word became flesh”. 48ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPHESUS, Anathemas of Cyril of Alexandria, 8: DH 259. Christ is in no way “worshipped in two natures, whereby two acts of worship are introduced”; instead, we venerate “by one act of worship God the Word made flesh, together with his own flesh”. 49SECOND ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, Session VIII (2 June 553), Canon 9: DH 431.
Saint John of the Cross sought to explain that in mystical experience the infinite love of the risen Christ is not perceived as alien to our lives. The infinite in some way “condescends” to enable us, through the open heart of Christ, to experience an encounter of truly reciprocal love, for “it is indeed credible that a bird of lowly flight can capture the royal eagle of the heights, if this eagle descends with the desire of being captured”. 50SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS, Spiritual Canticle, red. A, Stanza 22, 4. He also explains that the Bridegroom, “beholding that the bride is wounded with love for him, because of her moan he too is wounded with love for her. Among lovers, the wound of one is the wound of both”. 51Ibid., Stanza 12, 8. John of the Cross regards the image of Christ’s pierced side as an invitation to full union with the Lord. Christ is the wounded stag, wounded when we fail to let ourselves be touched by his love, who descends to the streams of water to quench his thirst and is comforted whenever we turn to him: