In Corde Jesu

Image courtesy Fisheaters.com

The bus into town ran a little late this morning, and the traffic across the Roosevelt Bridge into DC was lighter than usual for the AM rush. There can be only one possible explanation.

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and commuters were delayed by attending the early morning Mass.

Outside of devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary, there is none more popular or more identified with the traditional piety of Catholic life, than this feast that occurs on the Friday of the week following the Feast of Corpus Christi. It was on that earlier solemnity that a novena to the Sacred Heart began, culminating in the Mass and Office of today.

"Christ's open side and the mystery of blood and water were meditated upon, and the Church was beheld issuing from the side of Jesus, as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that we find the first unmistakable indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Through the wound in the side, the wound Heart was gradually reached, and the wound in the Heart symbolized the wound of love." (1917 Catholic Encyclopedia)

There were various monastic communities who took up the devotion, but the real tip of the biretta has always gone to St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90), a Visitation nun who had a vision. While praying before the Blessed Sacrament, she saw Our Lord with his heart beating openly, and the sight of it all sent her into a spell of ecstasy. "He disclosed to me the marvels of his Love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart." To say the least.

But perhaps the finest explanation of this vision can be found in an episode of The X-Files, a detective series that ran on The Fox Network for nine years, and to this day has a formidable cult following. [UPDATE: I have since found the episode in question, details of which can be accessed here.]

It seems there were people being murdered by their hearts being removed by hand. Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) visited this Catholic church, and upon coming across the image of the Sacred Heart, she runs into this creepy guy who explains the story behind the image to her. His account portrayed an almost sensuous quality to her reaction to this vision, in a way I have read or heard no where else. (Now if I can just find the synopsis on one of those X-Files fan club sites. Stay tuned...)

A common practice in many Catholic homes until the mid-20th century (including mine), was the "Enthronement of the Sacred Heart," in which the family placed the appropriate image of Christ on the wall, and together recited the necessary prayers, pledging the consecration of the family and the home to Him, in return for special graces. Fisheaters has a good explanation of the whole she-bang, just in case it makes a comeback.

It could happen.