The Fruits of Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Can we truly know God? asks the world doubtfully to-day. Can the great God love or care for us, as we understand the words? Or is there a man, sinless, unselfish, divine, with a mind and a heart like our own, to teach us the true knowledge and love of God? Is there, in this dark world of ours, a spring of light and love where all may drink and which will never run dry? Brethren, we If whose eyes have seen the King in his beauty" (Isa. xxxiii. 17) fearlessly answer " Yes." Such an one" was seen on earth, and conversed with men," and His" Sacred Heart" is the magic fountain that men crave for. Let us consider the beginning of the first sermon: "By the very nature of His being, God is beyond the comprehension of a creature. Finite mind at its highest, even with the joint light of nature, grace, and glory, can never fully grasp the infinite. It is the sole prerogative of the three divine Persons, to know adequately their own common nature and essence." In another sermon we read: "Love of the Holy Ghost was a permanent feature of the spirit of Jesus; and is, therefore, intimately linked with devotion to the Sacred Heart. Love and fire are symbols of the heart as they are of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the Holy Ghost is love in the full limitless sense of the term, the eternal, substantial, mutual love of father and son. We are taught by the Sacred Heart to look up to the Father with filial humility and dependence as Creator, Preserver and Last End; to seek in the Son the divine light, guiding us in reason and faith; but in the Holy Ghost the living fire came down from heaven, the love, the heartfelt enthusiasm that carries us irresistibly forward to virtue, good works, holiness." Each sermon is divided into three sections, light, love and then duty. And in conclusion: "No more fitting conclusion than this to our thoughts on the fruits of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Briefly put, these fruits are light in the mind, love in the heart and firm purpose of will to carry out all resulting duties, that will make us not merely "hearers but doers of the Word." The main power of the soul are thus exercised and strengthened. The whole field of the soul is made fruitful in light and love, leading to duty in the three great relations of life, those bearing on God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Thus united to the Sacred Heart on earth, we may confidently hope one day to live united with it forever in heaven. For true lovers of the Sacred Heart the sixth beatitude is ever in the way of fulfillment: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."