The Sisters Of the Visitation of Tyringham

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THE SACRED HEART AND THE HOLY TRINITY

by Sister Mary Charles

June 2007

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Dear Friends of the Sacred Heart,

The Sacred Heart and the Holy Trinity. How profound! The title for this talk came to me very easily for today is Trinity Sunday!  Since "The Year of The Eucharist" proclaimed by our beloved Pope John Paul the Great, and reading his magnificent encyclical on the Eucharist, "Eucharistia Ecclesia", I have been strengthened in my own Eucharistic devotion and deeply desire to strengthen others in theirs. Thus as I begin this talk my prayer is that each of us intensify our love, devotion and adoration of the Heart of the Trinity ever present in the Eucharist.

 Our present and much loved Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has recently published an encyclical on the Eucharist entitled "Sacramentum Charitas - the Sacrament of Love". In these beautiful and thought provoking words Pope Benedict and the Synod Fathers capture the essence of our Catholic belief in the Eucharist. I have taken much of what follows directly from Sacramentum Charitas.

"The Sacrament of Charity, the Holy Eucharist, is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of Himself, thus revealing to us God's infinite love for every person. This wondrous Sacrament makes manifest that 'greater' love which led Him to ' lay down His life for His friends' (Jn. 15:13). Jesus did indeed love them ' to the end' (Jn. 13:1). In the same way, Jesus continues, in the food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free, Christ becomes for us the food of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: 'What does our soul desire more passionately than truth? Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth.  The Lord Jesus, 'the way, the truth, and the life' (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the truth in person drawing the world to Himself."

 "Jesus Christ is the Truth in Person"! Isn't that fantastic! And Pope Benedict says elsewhere "being Christian begins with an encounter with a Person", the Person of Jesus Christ, Truth Incarnate. Awesome! Let us return to the encyclical.  "In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. The Eucharist is the very centre of the Church's life. The substantial change of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus is a reality which surpasses all human understanding. The Eucharist is the 'mystery of faith'  par excellence; the sum and a Eucharistic faith, and it is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist. For this reason, the Sacrament of the Altar is always at the heart of the Church's life. Thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever anew! 

 The first element of Eucharistic faith is the mystery of God Himself, Trinitarian love. In Jesus' dialogue with Nicodemus, we find an illuminating expression in this regard: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him' (Jn 3:16-17). These words show the deepest source of God's gift. In the Eucharist Jesus does not give us a 'thing', but Himself; He offers His own Body and pours out His own Blood. He thus gives us the totality of His life and reveals the ultimate origin of this love. He is the eternal Son, given to us by the Father. In the Gospel we hear how Jesus, after feeding the crowds by multiplying the loaves and fishes, says to those who had followed Him to the synagogue of Capernaum: 'My Father gives you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world' (Jn 6:32-33). 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My Flesh' (Jn 6:51). The Eucharist reveals the loving plan that guides all of salvation history. There the Deus Trinitas, who is essentially love, becomes fully a part of our human condition. The 'mystery of faith' is thus a mystery of Trinitarian love, a mystery in which we are called by grace to participate. This 'eternal life' begins in us even now, thanks to the transformation effected in us by the gift of the Eucharist. By receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ we become sharers in the divine life in an ever more adult and conscious way.

 Here too, we can apply Saint Augustine's words in his Confessions about the eternal 'Word' as the food of our souls. Stressing the mysterious nature of this food, Augustine imagines the Lord saying to him: 'I am the food of grown people; grow, and you shall feed upon Me; nor shall you  Me'. Christ nourishes us by uniting us to Himself. This most holy mystery thus needs to be firmly believed, devoutly celebrated and intensely lived in the Church. The celebration and worship of the Eucharist enable us to draw near to God's love and to persevere in that love until we are united with the Lord whom we love." (Sacramentum Charitas) 

 Let us now look at this through the lens of the "pierced heart". The Catholic Church teaches that all the central truths that touch on the Blessed Trinity, the Eucharist, and our own salvation are joined in the mystery of the Sacred Heart. How is this? The Cross of Christ brings God and the pierced Heart which expresses the concept or "heart" of the mystery of God. God is love, says St. John, infinite love, love in Himself and love for us; and God is also Trinity. We see then that this grace-dispensing wound of the God-man on the Cross focuses our gaze on the ever-flowing redemptive love of the Trinity. Love becomes visible in the mystery of the Cross presented anew in every celebration of the Eucharist. This lays the foundation of our capacity to love and to make a gift of ourselves, becoming instruments in Christ's hands. Only in this way can we credibly proclaim His love. This opening of ourselves, to God's Will must be renewed in every moment, for love is never "finished" and "complete".

Thus looking at the "side pierced by the spear" from which shines forth God's boundless desire for our salvation cannot be considered a transitory form of worship or devotion, a fad, a pious sentimentality. The adoration of God's love, whose historical and devotional expression is found in the symbol of the "pierced heart", remains indispensable for a living relationship with God. By encouraging devotion to the Heart of Jesus the Popes exhort believers to open themselves to the mystery of God and of His love, and to allow themselves to be transformed by it. It is a loving task for Christians to continue to deepen their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive their faith in the saving love of God and to welcome Him ever better into their lives. We must draw from this source, the Redeemer's pierced side, to attain true knowledge of Jesus Christ and a deeper experience of His love. Indeed, to take up a saying of Pope John Paul II, "In the Heart of Christ, man's heart learns to know the genuine and unique meaning of his life and of his destiny". Pope Benedict adds: "In my first Encyclical, I cited the affirmation in the first letter of St John,' we have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us', in order to emphasize, that being Christian begins with an encounter with a Person. Since God revealed Himself most profoundly in the Incarnation of His Son in whom He made Himself 'visible', it is in our relationship with Christ that we can recognize who God really is. Moreover, not only does this mystery of God's love for us constitute the content of the worship of and devotion to the Heart of Jesus, but in the same way it is likewise the content of all true spirituality and Christian devotion. It is consequently important to stress that the basis of the devotion is as old as Christianity itself. Indeed, it is only possible to be Christian by fixing our gaze on the Cross of our Redeemer, 'on Him whom they have pierced' (John 19: 37). Gazing at the Lord's  pierced side, from which 'blood and water' flowed (John19:34), helps us to recognize the manifold gifts of grace that derive from it and opens us to all other forms of Christian worship embraced by the devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Faith, understood as a fruit of the experience of God's love, is a grace, a gift of God. God, who poured out His love into our heart invites us tirelessly to accept His love". (Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Jesuits)

 I would like to pause now for a brief moment and ask a rhetorical question. Do you think that after all I have already said, could there be any connection between the Holy Trinity, the Eucharist, and Sacred Heart Spirituality? Oh, I pray that what I have shared would evoke from your hearts a positive, unequivocal affirmation that there is not only a link, but the truth of the reality that the Eucharist is Trinitarian love poured out, the Eucharist is the Sacred Heart.

Let us conclude with a Marian reflection. "May Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate Virgin, ark of the new and eternal covenant, accompany us on our way to meet the Lord who comes. In her we find realized most perfectly the essence of the Church. The Church sees Mary, Eucharistic Woman', as she was called by the Servant of God, John Paul II as her finest icon, and she contemplates Mary as a singular model of the Eucharistic life. Let us encourage one another to walk joyfully, our hearts filled with wonder, towards our encounter with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, so that we may experience and proclaim to others the truth of the words with which Jesus took leave of His disciples: 'Lo, I am with you always, until the end of the world' (Mt 28: 20)". (Sacramentum Charitas).

Through the intercession of our Lady may we live with trust, with courage, with "HEART" a life of love until we are totally enfolded in the Holy Trinity's supernal love and peace. Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit Amen! Allelluia!

This presentation was given at the Monastery of the Visitation of Tyringham, MA on Friday June 1, 2007

God be Praised