Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to Sister Marie-Gabrielle Morant at Moulins in 1686. In this short three-quarter page letter, we encounter the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and His flames of pure love. The burning love of Jesus is purifying, and so, Saint Margaret Mary can recognise her wretchedness and wickedness. As divine love wipes away our dirt, we can see ourselves more clearly: pride and selfishness, especially. Sister Margaret Mary seeks to be “humiliated” and “despised” by everybody. This clarity of self-perception reflects the cleansing love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus shaping her. Such experiences terrify us, being humiliated and despised, but Saint Margaret Mary embraces the redemptive significance of suffering. So long as we can acknowledge our miseries, we can also offer thanksgiving to God for coming to rescue us, to save us, “His Sacred Heart is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy.” This is why Saint Margaret Mary states, “It seeks only to fill humble hearts emptied of self…” If our hearts are full of pride, how can Jesus enter our hearts with that love He wants to give us? And so, the daily experiences that serve to humble us, that purify us of pride and self-love, we should welcome as our hearts are rendered more open to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is not praise or flattery that we should seek or content ourselves with. Only loving the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that He may love us in return. To love means to suffer; there is no other way. Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque tell us that when we love, we become like our beloved, and so, we are to live our lives like Jesus, our Beloved.