THE SHIELD IV ❤️🔥 Le cœur sacré de Jésus
Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matth.11’29.
If there is one place to visit Paris for, again, it would be Sacré-Cœur, or to be exact Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. It's worth the climb. It sits atop the city with spectacular views all around. Not to mention its splendid architecture and larger than life mosaic of the risen Christ.
Sacré-Cœur means sacred heart. The church is dedicated to the heart of Jesus. Roughly around the time of the Franco-Prussian war it was believed such a monument and place of worship would uplift the downtrodden spirit of the nation and bring about more holy contemplation.
Despite much opposition and thanks to many contributions, work on the basilica was eventually completed. A testament perhaps to The One Who Said, I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Despite what you might think of the Catholic Church, it can be said that while the secular world instituted pride into the month of June, they have annually dedicated June as The Month of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Heart of Jesus
What can be said of the heart of the Lord?
With ‘heart’ we are obviously referring to the spirit and not the physical organ, although we see, in the mosaic for example, illustrations of a glowing physical heart. This is doubtless to demonstrate what lies beneath.
Jesus is God, and so we are really talking about the heart of the Father here. That said, we can observe in the man Christ Jesus, as He walked the earth, a revealing of His heart. Many times He wore it on His sleeve; when zeal for God's House led Him to make wips, for example. At other times it had to be searched out, as for example when the woman caught in adultery was hauled before Him. A heart full of compassion!
None of the scripture writers expressed appreciation for His heart like John the Beloved. As He lay on the Master's bosom he must have gazed into the beauty of that sacred heart.
For me, His heart overflowed with three forces: LIFE. LIGHT. LOVE.
Never was LOVE so fully displayed as on Calvary, when the LIGHT of LIFE passed through the hour of darkness.
“When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53 ESV.
When they pierced His side, blood and water came out, because that heart had burst.
A heart that burst from love.
No greater love.
No greater heart.