Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not your grandmother, says Spanish Bishop

Mons. Demetrio Fernández, Bishop Emeritus of Córdoba (Spain), emphasizes that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “is not a thing of your grandmother”, at the inauguration of the “Cor iiesu, Sepes Mundi” congress.

During his inaugural presentation, “Paray Le Monial: The Sacred Heart, Hope of the Church in the Pontifical Teaching”, Mons. Demetrio Fernández highlighted some aspects of the main documents that have deepened in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, from the encyclical Draw water (Pius XII, 1956) until Loves us (Francisco, 2024).

From the latter, he emphasized that it is “a gift from God, an encyclical for our whole life” that, in his way of understanding “surpasses Draw water”.

In any case, in both “a very important statement is made: the devotion and worship to the heart of Jesus has been encouraged by the appearances to Santa Margaría Mary, Father Hoyos, etc. but they have not begun (there), but the heart of Christ begins in the virginal bosom of Mary and his love has explained it to us in multiple ways in his own life Jesus Christ.”

The Blessed Bernardo of Hoyos became the instrument of the Lord from a very young age for the spread of devotion to his sacred heart in Spain. On May 14, 1733 he had the grace to attend the appearance of the Sacred Heart that shared a promise: “I will reign in Spain, and with more veneration than in many other parts.” Ordered priest in January 1735, he died just 10 months later at 24 years of age.

Next, the prelate pointed out that devotion took a certain body within the Church with the approval of the party in 1765 in a particular way in Poland and, subsequently, for the entire Church by Pius IX in 1856, a century before Draw water.

Following the historic iter, Mons. Fernández recalled that in 1899, Leo XIII consecrated the world for the first time to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that his successor, St. Pius X, encouraged that this world and particular consecration be done annually. In 1925, Pío XI instituted the feast of Christ King with the encyclical Which the first “Before the public apostasy of the world.”

Comfort the heart of Christ

In 1938, Pío XI published Misserentisimus Redeemerencyclical in which he invites the “consecration to the heart of Jesus, to repair and atonement,” recalled the prelate, to comfort Christ.

“How do we live in the 21st century can we comfort Jesus who lived in the 1st century?” Asked Bishop Emeritus of Córdoba, to answer that “we can make Jesus contemporaries historically” because He had us present to all of his earthly life.

“If this is so,” said – San Ignacio will be able to say in the exercises that I meditate ‘as if he presents me there, “he added, before stating that from there the practice of the Holy Hour is born.

Beyond the Pontifical Magisterium, Mons. Fernández highlighted the teachings of Santa Teresa del Niño Jesús on the Sacred Heart of Jesus or Santa Faustina Kowalska, underlining that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was Cardinal Wojtyla who presented a translation of the newspapers of Santa Faustina who managed to raise the prohibition of the Holy Office in February 1978, just six months before John Paul II was chosen.

The Polish Pope prompted the devotion to the Christ of Mercy and instituted the party of divine mercy on the second Easter Sunday, date on which he died.

Of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, Mons. Demetrio emphasizes that in the encyclical God is charitythe German Pope conducted “an analysis of precious love”, referred to that of God and that of men “and one and the other in the heart of Christ.”

Already in Francisco’s pontificate, Mons. Demetrio Fernçanndez said that in Loves us The Argentine Pope speaks “of the importance of the heart in a world without heart”, despite being the “center of the person, the center of feelings, the place of one’s identity.”

Bishop Emeritus of Córdoba encouraged to “read and meditate” the encyclical of Pope Francis “not one, but many times already pieces, by chapters, by numbers.”

In this context he referred how a young man told him after reading Loves ushe said: “I thought that was my grandmother and now I realize that Pope Francis says it is for everyone.”

Before concluding his analysis of the encyclical of Pope Francis, Mons. Fernández stressed that this devotion is “today and for the future. It is not your grandmother’s thing” and, he added, “is part of the treasure of the Church.”

“The heart of Christ as a uterus”

For his part, the bishop of Orihuela-Aliante, Mons. José Ignacio Munilla presided over the opening mass of the Congress in the Sanctuary Basilica of the Great Promise and during the homily He pointed out that “love does not support silence and a maximum proof of love, of God’s mercy is revelation,” first in Jesus Christ.

But also in other ways, such as that made by the heart of Jesus to Santa Margarita María de Alacoque 350 years ago, a framework in which the Congress that responded to the “emergency of Jansenism, in which the merciful face of God had been blurred.”

In our day, Mons. Munilla continued, “there is another great emergency” for which the revelation of the Sacred Heart remains of “absolute news and is the need to know us loved and dear.”

This desire, in the opinion of the prelate, collides with the anthropological crisis of our time “that not only happens in the interiority of man, but is public, is evident” and that is substantiated in the loss of hope in holiness.

That means that “there is no one in full, there is no one mature” and, therefore, “nobody believes that there is a reference of my life in which I can put my trust.” This lack of leaderships is a drama that underlines “that there is no hope that holiness is possible.”

Hence a devaluation of the concept of mercy is derived, according to Mons. Munilla, in the sense of considering that “even if we are sinners and live in contradiction with God’s call to holiness, God is merciful and will run a thick veil.”

The bishop of Orihuela also dedicated part of his homily to teaching that the heart of Christ is not only a place of comfort but that “becomes a uterus, into a maternal breast, in which we are engendered to the life of holiness.”

“It is not only a consolation, but it is a grace, a renovating grace. And we trust that this renovating grace is contagious, it is expansive, it spreads as an expansive wave and is able to transform a society,” he added.