One word that strikes me when I reflect upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the word “passion.” The flames and the wounds in the image depict the burning passion of Jesus’s love for us. As somewhat of a linguist, I’m drawn to the Latin root of the word, which means “to suffer.” Wait, suffering? Why do we have to go there?
If you ask St. Ignatius, understanding Jesus’s Passion is key to understanding God’s love for us. In the Third Week of the Spiritual Exercises, the retreatant is asked to pray with the Passion narratives. In this experience, we recognize that we cannot stop the soldiers who beat Jesus nor the crowd that yells for his death. Instead, through simply being with Jesus in his suffering, we come to know the depth of his love for us. How does the Sacred Heart of Jesus speak to you?
—Jack McLinden, SJ is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province; he is currently studying philosophy at Saint Louis University.