For a long time, the Church has dedicated the month of June to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. The designation of the solemn feast of the Sacred Heart is on the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi. The feast of the Sacred Heart was approved for specified dioceses by Clement XIII in 1765,
and extended to the whole Church by Pius IX in 1856. In 1889 Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the rank of
first class, and through an encyclical letter in 1899 dedicated the whole Catholic world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Understood in the light of the Scriptures, the term “Sacred Heart of Jesus” denotes the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of his being, and his person considered in its most intimate essential: Son of God, uncreated wisdom; infinite charity, principal of the salvation and sanctification of mankind.
Scriptural Basis for the Devotion: Jesus, who is one with the Father (cf. John 10, 30), invites his disciples to live in close communion with him, to model their lives on him and on his teaching. He, in turn, reveals himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11, 29). It can be said that, in a certain sense, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a cultic form of the prophetic and evangelic gaze of all Christians on him who was pierced (cf. John 19, 37; Zac 12, 10), the gaze of all Christians on the side of Christ, transfixed by a lance, and from which flowed blood and water (cf. John 19, 34), symbols of the “wondrous sacrament of the Church” (St. Augustine). The Gospel of St. John recounts the showing of the Lord’s hands and his side to the disciples (cf. John 20,20), and of his invitation to Thomas to put his hand into his side (cf. John 20, 27). This event has also had a notable influence on the origin and development of the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart.