As we begin our reflections on the various invocations of the Litany of the Sacred Heart, we do so having spent the past several weeks reflecting on the mystery of the Word becoming flesh in the Incarnation. For that reason, it seems that a good place to start is with the second invocation of the litany:
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother, have mercy on us.
This invocation expresses what the Angel Garbiel reveals to both Mary and Joseph, that the child in Mary’s womb was to be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt. 1:20, Lk 1:35) From Mary’s womb, Jesus, the Word made flesh, receives His human nature. But this humanity in Jesus is united consubstantially with His divine nature, such that we can speak of Jesus as true God and true man. Mary’s “yes” to God makes this union possible, as she gives her permission to have her womb be the very place where God joins Himself with our humanity.
As Jesus’s humanity develops in the womb of Mary, it follows the same pattern of every human life, including the development of organs, including the heart. One of the most exciting moments for a woman who is pregnant is to hear the heartbeat of the child in her womb for the first time. Unfortunately, there was no ultrasound technology at the time of Mary’s pregnancy, but we know that Jesus’s heart was indeed beating. Unlike an embryo who is not yet conscious, the beating Sacred Heart of Jesus was already an expression of the love He has for each of us, for the divinity of God, who is love, is constantly loving all whom He has created from all eternity. As that heart would grow and develop, inside and outside of the womb of Mary, it remained a human heart, while always united with the divine heart of God.
Trying to understand the mystery of what is called the hypostatic union – that in Jesus, there is one divine Person, who has two complete natures, human and divine – is beyond what we can consider in this brief article. Yet, it is a mystery that is central to our faith, and central to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the last major document that he wrote before his death, Pope Francis offers the following explanation that makes this point:
Since the heart continues to be seen in the popular mind as the affective centre of each human being, it remains the best means of signifying the divine love of Christ, united forever and inseparably to his wholly human love. Pius XII observed that the Gospel, in referring to the love of Christ’s heart, speaks “not only of divine charity but also human affection”. Indeed, “the heart of Jesus Christ, hypostatically united to the divine Person of the Word, beyond doubt throbbed with love and every other tender affection” (Dilexit nos, 61)
Of all human beings, Mary’s Immaculate Heart was most in union with the Sacred Heart of her son, both physically and spiritually. We can ask her to help us to better appreciate the gift of the Sacred Heart, and that by our union with Him through grace, our hearts will beat more consistently with His with love for Him and for our brothers and sisters.