This article was republished from a regular column by Fr. Ron Ramson, C.M., in the Perryville Republic Monitor.
I have been asked to write about “An Apostolic Heart.”
To offer any kind of reflection on this subject, I think that I need to offer some ideas on “apostolic spirituality,” “the virtue of zeal,” perhaps something about “apostleship.”
Let’s begin with “apostolic spirituality.”
There are two fundamental imperatives of the Christian vocation: love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Any Christian spirituality must be concerned with these three vectors.
Christian spirituality in its most fundamental meaning refers to striving to think, imagine, feel, desire, choose and act under the influence of the Holy Spirit of the risen Savior.
St Vincent de Paul taught, “first the heart, then the work.” That is more than an operating principle; it is a life principle. Our heart comes first, then the work. But isn’t that true? What makes us react, or act when we see someone suffering or in need? What makes us go to their assistance? Isn’t it our heart? Are we moved by compassion? We are touched by what we see before us.
Father Ruby Garcia, VD for the Diocese of Dallas, wrote in an article that as a priest, “You are to have the heart of Jesus the Good Shepherd, a heart that convulses with love at the sight of human need and suffering; a heart that seeks to give comfort and relief. A heart that loves so much that you are literally willing to give up your very life for your people.”
When we talk about Jesus, do we usually talk about his “apostolic heart?” I don’t think so. When we talk about the heart of Jesus, we talk about his Sacred Heart. Since the 17th century, we find the Heart of Jesus a favorite theme of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Francis de Chantal. St. John Eudes promoted devotion to the hearts of both Jesus and Mary, but it was the visions about the heart of Jesus experienced by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque between 1673 and 1675 that gave devotion to the Sacred Heart its accepted practice up to the present day. Jesus sent this cloistered nun, Margaret Mary, the Jesuit Claude la Colombiere to foster the devotion. This is how the Jesuits got involved in the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
The heart is a symbol of love. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a symbol of his infinite, unconditional, complete love for us. It is a symbol of the giving of his whole being for us.
The heart has always represented the response of the whole person. If we say that someone’s heart is really in it, we are saying that he is giving his all. Jesus gave us his all! “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:13)