Theologians will not fail to explain the contribution of Pope Francis to the doctrine of the Sacred Heart, and we will undoubtedly draw pastoral lessons from this new encyclical. Allow us here to broaden the subject and recall the vast range of meanings covered by the notion of ” heart “ in the cultures that counted for Catholicism: Hebrew, Egyptian, Greek, Frankish traditions and, in modern France which witnessed the apparitions, the classical, baroque and counter-revolutionary currents.
Let us say straight away that the notion of “heart of Christ” does not appear in the Gospels – unless you want to find it under the spear of Longinus or against the ear of Saint John. To tell the truth, the heart in the Old Testament has nothing to do with love: it relates more to what is deepest in man (as opposed to his appearance), without being however synonymous with soul or spirit (for this we use the notions of breath and, for God, to rain). Furthermore, “have a heart” means, in the Old Testament, to be endowed with reason. No love there, nor anything that establishes a connection with God.
The heart, bearer of the human soul
In ancient Egypt, on the other hand, the heart was thought of as a receptacle of the vital forces of the universe, capable of keeping the body in harmony with the cosmos. This harmony could be undermined by attacks from demons or hostile deities, and it was necessary to restore it through the action of medicine and magic. It is the heart organ, seat of the memory of all actions performed, which was weighed in the afterlife when people died.
From Egypt would therefore come the idea of a heart carrying the human soul, of a heart capable of communicating with the divine. We will find this association of heart and soul among the European mystics of the classical and baroque era. For the Greeks, and in particular Aristotle, the heart is conceived as “the sun of the body”its noblest organ, because it provides life (blood, beating, irrigation).
From this arises a whole theory taken up until the end of the 18th century by European scholars – including the theologians of the Sacred Heart: the heart of Christ is the subtle organ where his humanity and his divinity mingle, physically. Among the Germanic peoples, in addition to the magic associated with it, the heart was the seat of virtue, of courage, in other words of nobility. The hearts of kings were buried apart from their bodies and a form of worship was devoted to them.
A symbol of commitment and loyalty
The heart, symbolically this time, was also the object (meaning the whole person) that vassals and overlords exchanged. To give one’s heart to the lord was to pledge loyalty to him until death. At the top of the hierarchy of self-giving was the king, who received the homage of all hearts. This rich symbolism was obviously preserved in the cult of the Sacred Heart: we find it magnified in the appearances of Christ to Marguerite-Marie, in which the exchange of hearts figures centrally. The heart is not primarily a symbol of love in the sense of affect, but of commitment and loyalty.
Certainly, Marguerite-Marie is part of a lineage of mystics engaged in the contemplation of the wounds of Christ on the cross, these wounds which effectively signify God’s gift of love for our salvation – but also our offenses and our “ingratefulness” , of which Christ complained bitterly. For Marguerite-Marie, “the heart of Jesus”it is not only “his love for men” : it is also his soul, his deepest being, his love for the Father, his will united to His and to that of the Virgin Mary (the Immaculate Heart is nothing other than submission to the will of the Father and the Son); it is again, and above all, a heart wounded by the infidelity of men, which must be healed with greater fidelity.
It is this theology of reparation, which gave rise to new symbolic developments of the heart in the century that followed: resistance to the atheism promoted by the Revolution, but also a bulwark against the temptations of a religion that is too cerebral and too dry. . In short, the entire culture of the Sacred Heart is a concentrate of Catholic dynamism: evangelization (rather than eradication) of paganism and rebellion against its new resurgences.
