The everlasting meaning Carlo Colonna s.j. |
In his treaty about the divine Names the famous mystic and theolog Denis the aeropagite ascribes to God the concepts of Good and Love. God is Good, God is love. In the biblical language the term good is expressed by the word Light. St.Jon says :"God is light and in Him is no darkness" (1John 1,5). The darkness is evil. So we can say :"God is Goodness and in Him there is no evil".
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| [Gesł Nuovo Church, Naples, Italy] |
All these thruths that we consider as the first principles of our knowledge of God reflect on the entire Christian population in a clear and simple way for everyone by means of the Sacred heart. By means,we mean the spiritual communion of God. Communion with "God" is mentioned to indicate the presentation of the Holy Sacrament, where Jesus is present and is adored by all the believers. During the Corpus Christi day, Jesus Eucharistic is solemnly carried in Procession along the streets of our cities. Let us consider what occurs on the following days the Church celebrates the liturgical solemnity of the Sacred Heart. What is shown to the entire Christian population? The Sacred Heart presentation follows the Eucharistic one.
Those who do not consider only the ceremony's external appearance,but have a deep faith, know that God Himself is embodied in the divine names of Good and Love.
In fact Jesus Heart is the revelation to the world of God Good and God Love. The Sacred Heart celebration fills believers,who have experienced the goodness of God,with great joy and pleasure. They feel deeply loved by God and Jesus and through the Holy Spirit within them,they are led to render homage, love and praise to the infinite Love by whom they have been loved from the beginning.
Moreover it is spontaneous to consider during this celebration the many benefits that every man in particular believers,received through the endless love of God,source of all Goodness.
Jesus, as revealed by scriptures, is God's word by means of which God has spread goodness and salvation in heaven and on earth. Without Him no good exists as St.John solemnly declares (see John 1'3). We can therefore consider the Heart of Jesus as the unlimited greatness Sanctuary where God has placed His whole goodness outpouring from Him on creatures,particularly on God's believers.
To Jesus's Heart we particularly owe faith,hope and charity, the three vertues that connect us directly to the Almighty and make us as of now, toghether with Angels and Saints who are already aware of God, candidates to heaven. In the light of these biblicals thruths the worship and personal devotion to the Sacred Heart share the main point of the christian piety.
Undoubtedly this worship, particularly in the popular form, is influenced by the passed centuries religious language, when it fully bloomed, after the Sacred Heart revelation to St.Margaret Mary (1673).
Nowadays the religious language has changed, while the popular piety towards the Sacred Heart continues mostly to be expressed in the ancient language of the nineteenth century. Let us think about the last century Batoni's image representing the Sacred Heart,which is also nowadays the classic image expressing the popular piety towards the Sacred Heart.
However there is an essential part of truth concerning Sacred Heart which in itself has no language, it goes above any language. This truth cannot be expressed,it is mystic deep,and only a silent contemplation and the ardour of love within our hearts,are able to understand.
The contemplation and the adoration of God Good, of God Love are an essential part of worship and personal devotion to the Sacred Heart. Who has reached these tops has achieved the full knowledge of Jesus's Heart and according to St.Giovanni della Croce for whom who has reached the mystic union with God, there is no road and no language.
All the believers have a right to reach these truths,because God and Christ his Son must be known and worshipped by everybody under these two names. Thus Father's providence has found a simple and popular way accessible to all, to reach his believers and to make Himself known by them: the Sacred Heart revelations and worship, centralized around well defined symbols, concerning the mystery of God's Love and of God's Good.
Let us consider for a moment the Sacred Heart images, both referring to St.Margaret Mary or to Faustina Kowalska or others. We can always find in them the flame, the fire, the blood, the light, the sufferings signs endured for the love of God. The energy stamming from these images are energies of grace, peace and love. The colours are a bright, red, white and blue. Thus painting serves to contemplate the mystery of God, Who offering His love and Himself to man while expecting from man to believe in this love surrendering completely to Him.
Therefore it is necessary to update the language, rendering it clearer as concerns the religious feelings of todays people. However, the spiritual communion of th Sacred Heart amongst the world population will continue for ever and ever.
People with intuition will understand. Those who are shocked should remember Jesus's words: "Blessed be him who is not shocked by me". (Mt.11,6).
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