Today, Friday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost, as our Church celebrates the Solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are invited to reflect on a passage from the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans (8:28-39) entitled "The love of God is revealed in Christ". Our treasure, which follows, is from a work by Saint Bonaventure, bishop.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practiced and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ, the liturgical Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, is celebrated the third Friday after Pentecost.
The devotion is especially concerned with what the church deems to be the long-suffering love and compassion of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The popularization of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a Roman Catholic nun from France, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus during a series of apparitions to her between 1673 and 1675.
Saint Bonaventure was born about the year 1218 at Bagnorea in Tuscany. He studied philosophy and theology at Paris and, having earned the title Master, he taught his fellow members of the Order of Friars Minor with great success. He was elected Minister General of the Order, a position he filled with prudence and wisdom. After being made Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, he died at the Council of Lyons in 1274. His writing did much to illuminate the study of both theology and philosophy.
