The Sacred Heart

No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
John 1:18

Perhaps it is a distaste for the iconography, but when I was younger I was at best unimpressed with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Some of the more anatomical renderings or prayers were big time turn offs.

I've opened myself a bit more to it, realizing the devotion has its roots in the need to pull God close, to remember that Jesus, while fully God and in majesty at the right had of the Father, is fully human. As such his heart knows sadness, disappointment, grief but above all love and yearning, the very human manifestation of the fundamental nature of God. The Sacred Heart is one way of portraying the aspect of Jesus who is always knocking, always calling, always thirsting for our love.

I found a litany in a copy of June's Magificat this morning in the chapel that spelled that out beautifully with none of the treacly Victorian sentamentality that turned me off in the past. With those ideas in my heart and mind I rode home in the car, and I had a odd thought. Janis Joplin was blaring from my speakers and it occurred to me I could put her cry of the heart in His mouth addressing it to me, calling me to Himself.

You're out on the streets looking good
And baby deep down in your heart I guess you know that it ain't right
Never, never, never, never, never, never hear me when I cry at night
But each time I tell myself that I, well I can't stand the pain

But when you hold me in your arms, I'll sing it once again
I'll say come on, come on, come on, come on and take it

Take another little piece of my heart now, baby
Oh, oh, break it

Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah
Oh, oh, have a

Have another little piece of my heart now, baby
Well you know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good

That image probably won't be many people's cup of tea, but I could hear it. Art is in the ear of the listener sometimes.

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