However, only from the Gospels do we get clear and full knowledge of the New Covenant between God and man.  The Covenant which Moses made between the people of Israel and God was merely the symbol and token which the Prophet Jeremias foretold.  The real new Covenant, we say, is that which was established and accomplished by the Incarnate Word and divine grace reconciling us with  God.  This Covenant must therefore be considered incomparably nobler and more lasting because it was ratified, not by the blood of goats and heifers, as was the first, but by His most Holy Blood, which the peace offerings--irrational animals--foreshadowed as "the  Lamb of God,  who takes away the sin of the world." (Jn. 1:29;; Heb. 9:18-28; 10:1-17.)

RATIFIED IN FRIENDSHIP
    The Christian Covenant, much more than the Old Covenant, clearly shows that it was not based on submission and fear, but ratified in terms of that friendship that must exist between a father and his sons, and sustained and strengthened by a more lavish participation in divine  grace and truth, according to the words of St. John the Evangelist: "And of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (Jn. 1:16-17.)
    Since we are led, then, to the very mystery of the Infinite Love of the Incarnate Word by these words of that Disciple "whom Jesus Loved, the one who, at the Supper, had leaned  back upon His Breast," (Jn. 21:20.) it  seems meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, Venerable Brothers, to linger a while in  the sweetest countemplation of that mystery, so that, enlightened by the light which shines from the Gospel and sheds light on this mystery, we too may understand and realize the desire expressed by the Apostle of the Gentiles in his letter to the Ephesians: "To have Christ dwelling through Faith in your hearts: so that, being rooted and grounded in Love, you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's Love, which surpasses knowledge, in order that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:17-19.)

THE REDEMPTION: MYSTERY OF LOVE
    The Mystery of the divine Redemption is first and foremost a Mystery of Love, that is, of the true Love of Christ for His  Heavenly Father, to whom the Sacrifice offered on the Cross in Loving obedience renders most abundant and infinite sactisfaction for the sins of mankind. "By suffering out of Love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race." (Summa Theologica III,  q.  48,   a.   2: ed. Leon. tom. 11, 199903, p. 464.)  It is, moreover, a Mystery of the Merciful Love of the august Trinity and the Divine Redeemer for all mankind.  Since men could not possibly make adequate expiation for their sins, (Cf. Encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor:  Acta Apostolicae Sedis 20, 1928, p.  170.) Christ, through the unfathomable riches of the merits which He acquired for us by shedding His Precious Blood, was able to restore and perfect the bond of friendship between God and men which had been severed first in  Paradise  by the pitiful fall of Adam, and later by the countless sins of the chosen people.

GOD'S JUSTICE AND MERCY
    Therefore the Divine Redeemer, as our duly constituted and perfect Mediator, because He made perfect satisfaction to divine Justice for all the debts and obligations of the human race ot of His most ardent Love for us, effected the  marvelous reconciliation between Divine Justice and Divine Mercy which  constitutes the unsurpassed Mystery of our Salvation.
    Concerning  this Mystery, the Angelic Doctor wisely says: "That man should be delivered by Christ's Passion  was in keeping with both His Mercy and His Justice.  With His Justice, becaause by His Passion Christ made satisfaction for the sin of the human race; and so was set free by Christ's Justice: and with His Mercy, for since man of himself could not satisfy for the sin of all human nature God gave him His Son to satisfy for him.
    "And this came of a more copious Mercy than if He had forgiven sins without satisfaction.  Hence St. Paul says: 'God, who is rich in Mercy, by reason of His very great Love where-with  He has Loved us, when we were dead by reason of our sins, brought us to life together with Christ.' " (Summa Theologica III, q. 48,  a. 1  ad 3: ed. Leon. tom. 11,  1903, p. 436. Eph.2:4.)

DIVINE AND HUMAN LOVE OF CHRIST
    However, that we may be able, so far as it is possible for mortal man "to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth" (Eph. 3:18.)  of the Sacred Love of the Incarnate Word for His Heavenly Father and for men defiled by sin, we must understand that His Love was not solely the spiritual Love which is proper to God because "God is Spirit." (Jn. 4:24.)  To be sure, the Love with which God Loved our first parents and the Hebrew people was of this spiritual nature.  The expressions of love, so human, intimate and paternal, which we read in the Psalms, in the writings of the Prophets and in the Canticle of Canticles, are indications and manifestations of the most genuin but entirely spiritual love with which God Loved the human race.  On the contrary, the love spoken of in the Gospel, the Letters of the Apostles and the pages of the book of the Apocalypse -- all of which describe the Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ -- express not only divine Love but also human sentiments of love.

PERFECT GOD AND PERFECT MAN
    This point is quite clear to all who are Catholics.  For the Word of God assumed not a fictitious and empty body, as was asserted in the first Century of the Christian era by some heretics who were condemned by St. John the Apostle in most severe terms: "For many deceivers have gone forth into the world, who do not confess Jesus as the Christ coming in the flesh.  This is the deceiver and the Antichrist." (2 Jn. 7.)  But the Word actually united to His divine Person an individual, integral and perfect human nature which was conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the most pure womb of the Virgin Mary. (Cf. Lk. 1:35.)  Nothing, therefore, was lacking in the human nature which the Word of God joined to Himself. Indeed He assumed a human nature in no way diminished or changed in its spiritual and bodily capacities, that is, a nature endowed with intelligence and will and the other internal and external faculties of perception, with sense appetites and all the natural impulses.
    The Catholic Church teaches all these Doctrines as Solemnly Proclaimed and Confirmed by the Roman Pontiffs and General Councile: "Whole and entire in what is His own, whole and entire in what is ours"; (St. Leo the Great, Epist. Dogm. "Lectis Dilectionis Tuae" ad 'Flavianum Const. Patr. June 13, a. 449; cf. P.L. LIV, 763.) "perfect in His Godhead and likewise perfect in His humanity"; (Council of Chalcedon, a. 451; cf. Mansi, op cit. 7, 115 B.) "complete God is man, complete man is God." (Pope St. Gelasius, Tract, 3: "Necessarium," Of the Two Natures in Christ, cf. A. Thiel, Letters of the Roman Pontiffs from St. Hilary to Pelagius II, p. 532.)

THE THREEFOLD LOVE OF CHRIST
    Therefore, there can be no doubt that Jesus Christ took a real body having all the affections which are proper to it, among which love certainly holds the first place.  Likewise, therefore, there can be no doubt that He had a physical heart like ours, since without this most excellent organ human life, and certainly where affections are concerned, is impossible.  Wherefore, the Heart of Jesus Christ, hypostatically united to the divine Person of the Word, beyond doubt throbbed with Love and the rest of the impulses of the affections which, however, were in such perfect accord and harmony with His human will, filled with divine Love and with the infinite Love Itself which the Son shares with the Father and the Holy Ghost, that there never was any contradiction or conflict between these three Loves. (Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theologica III, q. 15, a. 4; q. 8, a. 6: ed. Leon. tom. 11, 1903, p. 189 and 237.)
    The Word of God took upon Himself a real and perfect human nature and formed and fashioned for Himself a Heart of flesh, which, like ours could suffer and be pierced.  And yet, unless this teaching be condisered not only in the light which is shed by the hypostatic and substantial union, but also in that of the redemption of mankind -- its complement, as it were -- it can be a stumbling block and foolishness to some, as Christ nailed to the Cross actually was to the Jews and Gentiles. (Cf. 1 Cor. 1:23.)
    The authoritative teaching of the Catholic Faith, in complete agreement with Holy Scripture,  assures us that a human nature capable of suffering and dying was assumed by the only-begotten Son of God precisely because He wished to offer the Bloody Sacrifice on the Cross in order to accomplish the task of man's Redemtion.

"LIKE UNTO HIS BRETHREN"
    The Apostle of the Gentiles teaches this doctrine under another aspect in these words: "For both He who Sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all from one.  For which cause be is not ashamed to call them Brethren, saying, 'I will declare your name to my brethren....'  And again, 'Behold, I and my children, whom God has given me.'  Therefore, because children have blood and flesh in common, so He in like manner has shared in these.... wherefore it was right that He should in all things be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high Priest before God to expiate the sins of the people.  For in that He Himself has suffered and has been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted." (Heb. 2:11-14; 17-18.)

WITNESS OF THE FATHERS
    The Fathers of the Church, truthful witnesses of divinely revealed Doctrine, understood most definitely what the Apostle Paul had quite clearly stated: that the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption were the beginning and culmination of Divine Love.  Frequently, and in clear words, we read in their writings that Jesus Christ assumed perfect human nature and our mortal and perishable body, to provide for our eternal salvation and to show us His Infinite, even sensible, Love.

THE GREEK FATHERS
    Echoing the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Justin writes: "We adore and love the Word born of the unbegotten and ineffable God since He became Man for our sake, so the  having become partaker of our sufferings He might provide a remedy for them." (Apol. 2:13: P.G. VI, 465.)  St. Basil, first of the three Cappadocian Fathers, teachers that the affections of the senses in Christ were at one and the same time real and holy. "It is clear that the Lord did indeed assume natural affections as a proof of His real and not imaginary Incarnation and that He rejected as unworthy of the Godhead corrupt affections which defile the purity of our Life." (Epist. 261, 3: P.G. XXXII, 972.)  In like manner, the light of the Church of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom, states that the affections of the senses to which the divine Redeemer was susceptible prove beyond doubt that He assumed a complete human nature. "For if He had not shared our nature, He would not have repeatedly been seized with grief." (In Joann. Homil. 63, 2: P.G. LIX, 350.)

ST. AMBROSE AND ST. JEROME
    Of the Latin Fathers we select for mention those whom the Church today honors as Doctors.  St. Ambrose testifies that the movement of the senses and the affections which Christ truly experienced are rooted in the Hypostatic Union as in a natural principle: "And therefore He assumed a soul and the passions of the soul; for God, precisely because He is God, could not have been disturbed nor could He have died." (De fide and Gratianum, ii, 7, 56: P.L. XVI, 594.)

    From these affections St. Jerome draws his chief proof that Christ assumed human nature: To prove that He really assumed human nature, He really became sorrowful. (Super Matth. 26, 37: P.L. XXVI, 205.)  St. Augustine in a special manner calls attention to the relationship between the affections of the Incarnate Word and the purpose of the Redemption of the human race: "These affections of human infirmity, just as the very flesh of human infirmity and the death of human flesh, the Lord Jesus assumed not out of necessity but freely out of compassion so that He might transform in Himself His Body, which is the Church of which He deigned to be the Head, that is, His members in the faithful and the Saints, so that if any of them in the trials of this life should be saddened and afflicted, they should not therefore think that they are deprived of His grace; nor should they consider this sorrow a sin, but a sign of human weakness; like a choir singing in harmony with the note that has been sounded, so should His Body learn from its Head." (Enarr. in Ps. 87, 3; P.L. XXXVII, 1111.)

ST. JOHN DAMASCENE
    In less ornate but nevertheless forceful words, the following passages from St. John Damascene set forth the clear teaching of the Church: "Complete God took me up completely, and whole was united to whole, that He might bestow salvation upon the whole.  For what was not assumed could not be healed." (De Fide Orth. 3, 6: P.G. XCIV, 1081.)  "He therefore assumed all that He might sanctify all." (Ibid. 3, 20: P.G. XCIV, 1081.)
    We must, however, bear in mind that these quotations from Scripture and the Fathers and not a few similar ones which we did not cite, although they clearly attest that there were in Jesus Christ movements of the senses and affections and that He assumed human nature to accomplish our eternal salvation, never refer these affections to His physical Heart in such a manner as to indicate it clearly as the symbol of His infinite Love.

THE SAVIOR'S COUNTENANCE
    But if the Evangelists and the rest of the Sacred Writers do not clearly describe the Heart of our Redeemer as responding to feelings and emotions no less than ours and as throbbing and palpitating on account of the various movements and affections of His Soul and of the most ardent Love of His human and divine Wills, nonetheless they frequently do clearly record His divine Love and those movements of the emotions connected with it, namely, desire, joy, sadness, fear and anger as they are reflected in His countenance, words and manner of acting.
    Our adorable Savior's face was an indication and perfect mirror of those affections which moved His Soul in various ways and, by a sort of sympathetic vibration, touched His Sacred Heart and set it beating.  The observation which the angelic Doctor drew from common experience concerning human psychology and its consequences is pertinent to this matter: "The disturbance of anger reaches to the outward members and chiefly to those members which reflect more distinctly the emotions of the heart, such as the eyes, face and tongue." (Summa Theologica, I-II, q. 48, a. 4: ed. Leon. tom. 6, 1981, p. 306.)

THE HEART: INDEX OF CHRIST'S THREEFOLD LOVE
    Wherefore the Heart of the Incarnate word is rightly considered the chief index and symbol of the threefold Love with which the divine Redeemer continuously Loves the Eternal Father and the whole human race.  It is the Symbol of that divine Love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Ghost, but which in Him alone, in the Word namely that was made flesh, is manifested to us through a frail, mortal, human body, since "in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. 2:9.)
    It is moreover the Symbol of that most ardent Love which, infused into His Soul, enriches the human will of Christ, and whose action is enlightened and directed by a twofold most perfect knowledge, namely, the Beatific and Infused. (Cf. Summa Theologica, III, q. 9, aa. 1-3: ed. Leon. tom. 11, 1903, p. 142.)
    Finally, in a more direct and natural manner, it is a Symbol also of sensible Love, since the Body of Jesus Christ, formed through the operation of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, has a most perfect capacity for feeling and perception, much more than the bodies of all other men. (Cf. Ibid., III, q. 33, a. 2, ad 3m; q. 46, a 6: ed. Leon. tom. 11, 1903, pp. 342, 433.)

VENERATION DUE THE SACRED HEART
    Since Scripture and the teachings of the Catholic Faith affirm that there is the highest possible harmony and agreement in the most Holy Soul of Jesus Christ, and that He clearly directed His threefold Love to accomplish our Redemption, and the Mystical Ladder by which we climb to the embrace of "God our Savior." (Tit. 3:4.)
    Wherefore His Words, Actions, teachings, Miracles, and in particular those Deeds which more clearly testify this Love for us--the institution of the Holy Eucharist, His most bitter Passion and Death His most Holy Mother whom He lovingly gave to us, the founding of the Church, and the sending of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and upon us--all these we must regard as proofs of His threefold Love.

MEDITATE THIS HEART
    In like manner we must lovingly meditate on the pulsations of His Sacred Heart by which, so to speak, He Himself seemed to measure the time of His sojourn on earth up to that last moment when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying out in a loud Voice, 'It is consummated,' and, bowing His Head, He gave up His Spirit." (Mt. 27:50; Jn. 19:30.)
    Then the beating of His Heart stopped, and His sensible Love was interrupted until He arose from the tomb in triumph over death.
    But after His glorified Body was again united to the Soul of the divine Redeemer, the Conqueror of death, His Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with imperturbable and calm pulsation.  It will likewise never cease to signify His threefold Love by which the Son of God is bound to His heavenly Father and the whole human race, of which He is by perfect right the Mystical Head.

 Back to Beginning of Encyclical
 On Devotion To The Sacred Heart

 To Section III
 To Section IV
 To Section V