Sacred Heart
Original artwork by Murielle Blanchard used with her permission.
“Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for us, have mercy on us.”
Last Friday, June 16th, I was blessed to attend the wedding of a dear friend of my husband's. Like me, my husband's friend is an Adult Child of Divorce (ACoD). When I realized earlier this week that his wedding date coincided with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, I decided that I wanted to make a special wedding card for the couple. So I used colored pencil and ink to create my own rendition of the well-known Sacred Heart image. I think that reflecting on this image is important for everyone, but especially for us ACoDs who often struggle with accepting or even believing in unconditional love.
In eight years of my own marriage, I have learned a lot about love. I knew that I wanted a marriage where unconditional love was given and received—in other words, I was determined not to end in divorce like my parents had—but at first, I was not aware that receiving love takes a lot of humility. I grew up feeling like I had to earn love and respect, so when I don’t live up to my own standards, I really have to humble myself in order to accept that I’m loved anyway. I can (and do!) serve others all day long (my husband and I are the parents of six). But accepting love is actually harder for me, whether in relation to my husband or God, and I know this tends to be a problem for ACoDs.
The image of the Sacred Heart is powerful to reflect on, for the very reason that it beautifully depicts the burning love of God for us lowly human beings. On Friday (not at the wedding) I heard a priest explain that in order to understand the Sacred Heart, we have to think about the Trinity—i.e. who God is. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are a communion of Persons, perfectly one, yet also distinct. God the Father eternally begets the Son, and the Love between them is the Holy Spirit. St. Thomas Aquinas explains all this much better than I am doing here, but the point is that God is perfect in Himself. He is a communion of love, and He doesn't need anything or anyone outside Himself to be complete. This means that God doesn't actually have any reason to love us—He just does! If we had to be good in order to deserve God's love, for example, that means that God's love would be dependent on us meeting a certain condition or being a certain way. But a God dependent on His creatures would not be God! Now, think about that for a minute. God has no need for us. We don't deserve or earn His love. Yet God is love (cf. 1 John 4:8), and His human heart burns with love for us. As you look at the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, think about His heart aflame with unconditional love for you—undeserved yet freely given. We don't have to earn it or even understand it; all we have to do is accept it and respond wholeheartedly.
This is why a wedding card with the Sacred Heart image is so meaningful, because it can be very difficult to believe in and accept unconditional love. Really? A love I don't have to earn? It sounds too good to be true. But as my husband likes to say, it's actually too good not to be true. For my newly married friends, I pray for the grace of a holy and happy marriage; and for all ACoDs, I pray that we would come to know and experience ever more deeply the beautiful, awesome, unconditional love of God.
About the Author:
Murielle Blanchard graduated from Wyoming Catholic College in 2015. She attended her first Life-Giving Wounds retreat online in 2020 and has been passionate about the ministry ever since. She and her husband live in New Mexico with their six children, ages 7 down to 7-month-old twins. In her extremely limited spare time, she enjoys reading, working out, and making art. Her work can be found at etsy.com/shop/DesertShipofBeauty.
Reflection Questions for Small Groups or Individuals
In your life, how do you allow others to show you love? How do you allow Christ to show His love to you?
Reflecting on Murielle’s artwork, how can ACODs go deeper into the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Alternatively, how can we open ourselves up more to His Sacred Heart?