Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to her brother, a priest, in March 1687, expressing her love for him, her desire for him to advance in holiness, “a high degree of perfection.” For St. Margaret Mary, it’s not only being a priest that is a noble vocation, but rather, being a holy priest, a priest who seeks to perfect his priesthood, “He will not be satisfied with ordinary virtue in you.”

St. Margaret Mary recognises the challenges her brother must confront, “perishable things” and “empty pleasures” where one only “craves more.” The solution to these attractions and temptations as St. Margaret Mary tells her brother, “You will never find peace or repose until you have made a complete sacrifice to God.” And so, she directs her brother on a path where he totally belongs to God, and “despises everything else.”

And St. Margaret Mary offers her brother the means to do this: grace and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. She further acknowledges that she still stands far from perfection herself, telling her brother to make it known to her what is needed for her “perfect conversion.” The remarkable humility of the Saints who never downplay their sins, “I am very far from what God wants me to be,” St. Margaret Mary tells her brother. She even adds, “As yet I have done nothing for him.” St. Margaret Mary understands the value of suffering, although she acknowledges that she needs help by her brother’s prayers to “suffer properly.” Aware of her own limitations, St. Margaret Mary leaves us quite astonished with the intensity of her spiritual life and what she desires for her brother. She does not for a moment employ words to suggest her own sanctity, her own certitude, her own privileges, although she has received Revelations from Jesus Himself.

St. Margaret Mary teaches us in her letter to her brother that Sacred Heart is the path to sanctity: we need the burning heart to purify us of our impurities and to strengthen us. But Jesus does not heal us without our acknowledgement of what we need to be healed of. This is why St. Margaret Mary tells her brother directly, “you cannot become complacent.” Overcoming sin presupposes we recognise the sins we are battling. We cannot love Jesus, nor will not see God, with impure hearts. And so, we seek forgiveness, cleansing, and healing, so we can truly become one with the burning Heart of Jesus.