Haurietis Aquas - The Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Pius XII gave two reasons why the Church gives the highest form of worship to the Heart of Jesus. The first rests on the principle whereby the believers recognise that Jesus' Heart is hypostatically united to the "Person of the Incarnate Son of God Himself". The second reason is derived from the fact that the Heart is the natural sign and symbol of Jesus' boundless love for the humans. The encyclical recalls that for human souls the wound in Christ's side and the marks left by the nails have been "the chief sign and symbol of that love" that ever more incisively shaped their life from within.

The Pope describes several erroneous opinions regarding this devotion. There are those, who consider it burdensome and of little or no use to men. Others consider this devotion as a piety suited for women, and not for educated men. There are those who consider a devotion of this kind as primarily demanding penance, expiation and the other virtues which they call "passive," meaning thereby that they produce no external results. Hence they do not think it suitable to re-enkindle the spirit of piety in modern times .The encyclical replies with Pope Pius XI: The veneration of the Sacred Heart is a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a guide to a more perfect life. It more easily leads our minds to know Christ the Lord intimately and more effectively turns our hearts to love Him more ardently and to imitate Him more perfectly." Haurietis Aquas opines that the Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm. It will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which Jesus Christ is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race

The Heart of Jesus Christ loves the human race but as a human and divine heart. It began to beat with love at once human and divine after the Virgin Mary generously pronounced her "Fiat"; The Sacred Heart of Jesus shares in a most intimate way in the life of the Incarnate Word, and is thus a kind of instrument of the Divinity. Therefore, "in the carrying out of works of grace and divine omnipotence, His Heart, no less than the other members of His human nature is a symbol of that unbounded love".