Open arms, open heart

Jesus’ outstretched arms on the Cross are one of the most eloquent expressions of his love for us. We sometimes separate our hands to describe quantity: the size or amount of something material, or of our love for someone. The maximum extension that our limbs are capable of is 180 degrees, and this is what Jesus lived. It is as if he says to us: “I wait for you with open arms”, like the father who ran with outstretched arms to hug his “prodigal” son (Lk 15:20). He promises us total welcome and acceptance, a loving embrace that dissolves pain and distance.

Despite being taken prisoner by the religious and political authorities in Jerusalem and forced to endure horrendous suffering, Jesus went freely to his death: he didn’t go into hiding when he saw signs of the plotting against him. “The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will” (Jn 10:17-18). He did it in love for us: mysteriously, “we have been healed by his bruises” (Is 53:5).

In fidelity to the Kingdom (Reign) of God, the Kingdom of justice and peace and love that he had proclaimed and put into practice, after an anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemani Jesus faced up to those who opposed him and didn’t flinch when they led him away to be tortured and killed. In the midst of the horror, the sense of abandonment by those closest to him and even by his own heavenly Father, he asked his Father to forgive his executioners, commended his mother to the care of the beloved disciple, and gave himself utterly to the Father and to us right up until his last breath. His outstretched arms revealed the strength of his decision in the midst of his great vulnerability.

He trusted that death would not be the end. He descended to the place of the dead and on the third day emerged victorious, bringing in his wake all who had died and hoped for salvation. The fulfilment of his mission on Earth was crowned with the Resurrection, sealed with his Father’s embrace. Nothing is ever the same again, new life has dawned.

Another beautiful image of Jesus’ infinite love for us is his pierced side. “When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water” (Jn 19:33-34). The devotion of Christians to Jesus on the Cross led to deep reflections about the symbolism in this text. The Fathers of the Church saw the water and blood as signs of Baptism and the Eucharist, the foundational sacraments of the Church. Mystical writers identified the opening in Jesus’ side as revealing his heart: “Through the wound in his body, the wound in his heart is made manifest, this great mystery of love”[1]; the risen Lord shows his side “in which are contained all the riches of divine wisdom and knowledge, and his heart wounded with love for us even before being pierced by the lance”[2].

In this way a spirituality of the Heart of Jesus emerged and developed. His heart is a profound symbol of his infinite love for us, of his whole being in his self-giving to us. Jesus invites us to allow ourselves to be drawn into the mystery of his pierced heart, this heart that throbs with love for us to bursting point.

In our times the symbol of the heart can be easily banalized, reduced to a cypher for romantic love often of a transient nature. Recovering the rich biblical understanding of what this vital organ means communicates something very deep: our heart is “the radical source of [our] strengths, convictions, passions and decisions”[3]. The heart is our “personal centre, in which love, in the end, is the one reality that can unify all the others”[4]. Nevertheless, “our hearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded. […] We need the help of God’s love. Let us turn, then, to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire. There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love”[5].

How much we need to let ourselves be transformed and learn how to love! To go forth from our innate self-centredness and pride, moving out towards others in their life experiences and needs, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. Jesus, “gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29), fills our suffering with meaning and enables us to “carry each other’s burdens” (Gal 6:2).

St. Raphaela Mary had great devotion to the Heart of Jesus. At a time when religious sisters took on a different name than their civil one, she chose the name “Mary of the Sacred Heart” to express her identity as his Handmaid. At a challenging time in her life she experienced a torrent of love that came from Jesus towards her soul, the force of which swept away all her imperfections and gave her great spiritual strength. Even though when she described this particular moment Raphaela didn’t mention the word “heart”, it certainly seems to have been a heart-to-heart experience. She always found in the Heart of Jesus consolation, forgiveness and help to learn his way of loving. Open arms, open mind, open heart…

Do I feel attracted to the Heart of Jesus? Let him draw you into the mystery… and live life to the full.