The novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus begins on June 15; Don Bruno Tarantino invites us to reflect on its meaning today!
The heart is the center of the whole person
The heart, the center of the whole person, represents in Sacred Scripture not so much the seat of feelings as the point where every decision arises. The term “heart” appears in the Bible about a thousand times; of these, 20% refer to the cardiac muscle, while in the remaining 80% it has a symbolic meaning.
Only in light of this meaning can we understand the devotion to the heart of Jesus in all its power. Unfortunately, this devotion has often taken strange forms, the result of disembodied spiritualism; devotion has gradually turned into devotionalism, losing all its revolutionary power.
Only God’s love has the power to change human beings - every human being and the whole person. The heart is the most immediate human representation of the origin and seat of this infinite love.
What meaning does a novena to the heart of Jesus have in the 21st century?
This is no trivial question when we consider that the whole life of faith is nothing other than learning Christ’s way of looking at myself, at others, at the world, and at God. Jesus himself says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29); now more than ever, as we are increasingly caught up in the vortex of power and appearances, we need to attend this school of humanity and divinity.
We need a heart transplant; simple bypasses are not enough. We need Someone to remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. We need a heart transfusion.
Why nine days?
To answer this question, we need to refer to the mindset and symbolism of biblical people. To simplify: if we say to a friend, “Let’s take a few steps,” they immediately understand that we want to spend some time with them, talk to them, and have a companion along the way. Likewise, if we say, “Let’s make some spaghetti,” we are expressing our desire to welcome someone to our table or to be welcomed at someone else’s. However, someone outside our cultural world might not understand and might even think we were crazy.
In the Bible, the number 9 indicates an expectation that longs for fulfillment. We think of Abraham, who is 99 years old and still has no son: this leaves him lacking what was considered a divine blessing; we think of Jesus himself, who dies at the ninth hour, sensing abandonment by the Father, expressed in the words: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (cf. Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34).
In this context, we pray a novena because we feel that something is missing; we feel a desire for a fullness that we are not experiencing. We pray a novena, confident that God will answer as he did with Abraham, as he did with Jesus.
