Heart to Heart
June 23, 2017
Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame University
“1 VOICE of Jesus: My Child, thou art created for happiness. This experience affirms, this reason proves, this faith teaches.
Thou seekest incessantly for happiness, and thou dost well. But leave off seeking thy happiness in things created: in them thou shalt not find it.
No object of this world can satisfy the longings of thy heart; even shouldst thou alone possess at once all things created, thy heart should still be empty and wretched.
Things of this earth awaken the thirst of the heart, they cannot allay it: yea, the more thou dost possess, the more eagerly shalt thou thirst. How canst thou find in creatures that which exists not in them? Can any one give what he does not possess?
2. Shalt thou obtain what no mortal was ever able to obtain? Behold, the wisest of men abounded in all good things, he was affluent with ever-fresh delights, he astonished nations with his boundless wealth, he had filled the uttermost lands with the renown of his glory.
Yet, on account of the void of his heart, he is forced to exclaim: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.
Grant that thou possess whatever thy heart may long for in this world: that thou be lord of the whole earth: that all men do thee honor: try all things; and thou shalt find that thou hast as yet found nothing, except vanity and affliction of spirit.
3. Do not wonder at this, My Child: thy heart is not made for this world. Therefore, whatever this world contains is unworthy of thy noble destiny and of thy heart’s affection.
Thou art created for greater things, thou art born for things everlasting, thou art destined to things without limit. Do not then give thyself up to what is low and mean, since thou art made to rule forever.
What could it avail thee to gain the whole world, if thou shouldst lose thy soul? Surely, thou wouldst be twice unhappy: here, on account of the wicked state of thy conscience, thou wouldst suffer a torturing agony; hereafter, thou wouldst have to undergo misery everlasting.
Blessed, therefore, is he who spurns whatever may mislead the heart; who nobly casts aside every obstacle to true felicity ; who, mindful of his noble destiny, seeks happiness above all in his Creator.”
— From The Imitation of the Sacred Heart (J.P. Walsh, 1865) by Peter J. Arnoudt and J.M. Fastre, a manual of practical truths and divine wisdom pertaining to the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a symbol of divine love and an inducement to seek purity of heart and tranquility.
