What Is Meant By The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

  I have seen various pictures of Jesus with his heart exposed and various people outside the church will often ask what does that mean. I don't remember ever being taught what it exactly meant. They could have explained it in catholic school growing up and being a young child I wasn't paying attention. I remember seeing a painting maybe in my grandparents house or maybe it was a statue. Honestly I really can not remember, but later on I bought a small plaque from the dollar store with a picture of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus. Yes that's right I said dollar store and not in a religious book store.
 


 The Sacred Heart Of Jesus represents the love that Jesus has for the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is also for the love that he has for us as human beings. In the Jewish Faith the Heart represent the center or core of the individual. We see the heart as the main organ in all human beings. We also believe that the heart is the center of all spirituality. It has always been seen that this is where love comes from. Just as in the saying that love come from the heart. The two main items we always speak about in us as human beings are the heart and soul.
  The heart and love are spoken quite frequently throughout the old testament and in the new testament as well. In Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verse 5 to 6 it reads "You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
6 Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in your heart."
Here is a link to a website showing 100 verses in the bible associated with the heart http://www.openbible.info/topics/heart . In Matthew 11:28-30 we read


"Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden light" As you can see Jesus main message was to love on another as he has loved us and so his Sacred Heart represents the love for all.

The Early Church Fathers understood and loved the Sacred Heart Of Jesus.

St. Justin Martyr had said "We the Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as from a rock." You can also read that St. Iraneaus of Lyons said "The Church is the fountain of the living water that flows to us from the Heart of Christ" . These are just a few of the beliefs of the Early Church Fathers on the meaning of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus. I would advise to buy a book on the Early Church Fathers and do some reading. The devotion of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus was growing even through the Middle Ages when Pope Innocent VI in 1353 devoted a Mass to this devotion.

There were even some apparitions involving the Sacred Heart Of Jesus. In fact in 1673 there was an apparition to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque by our Lord Jesus Christ. It reads "My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love... that, not being able any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity, It must let them spread abroad through your means, and manifest Itself to man, that they may be enriched with Its precious treasures which I unfold to you, and which contain the sanctifying and salutary graces that are necessary to hold them back from the abyss of ruin." So we can see that the devotion to the Sacred Heart Of Christ has really been around since the beginning and is still going strong to this day. Just remember that the main message is to love one another and that the love comes from the heart.

Thank You for Reading and God Bless.