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Writer's pictureBryan de Justin
Sep 112 min read

A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart


"Thou shalt taste how delightful it is, to love Me, and to melt away in My love." (Imitation of the Sacred Heart, 1882, p. 149)



The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Present at The Last Supper
St. John Resting Upon The Sacred Heart

ABSTRACT


This article explores the psychoanalytic dimensions of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, particularly through the visions of Margaret Mary Alacoque and The Imitation of the Sacred Heart. It examines how the Sacred Heart functions as a love-object and holding environment, mitigating superego-driven guilt and providing emotional containment for the believer. The analysis delves into the sublimation of romantic and psychosexual attachments, where desires are purified and redirected towards divine love, thereby integrating emotional and spiritual fulfilment. The paper also addresses how the Sacred Heart reconciles Oedipal conflicts, offering a path to psychological and spiritual integration. By viewing Jesus as both a moral authority and a source of passionate love, the devotion to the Sacred Heart allows believers to transcend psychosexual conflicts and achieve a harmonious balance between their sexual needs and spiritual aspirations.


HISTORY


Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus may sound to non Roman Catholic individuals as strange. Devotion to the body parts of Jesus is almost exclusively found in Roman Catholicism (i.e. The Powerful Hand, The Holy Wounds, The Side of Christ, The Holy Face) and scarcely in Anglicanism. High-church oriented Lutheranism may likewise have an inclination towards veneration to the body parts of Jesus. I distinguish veneration from devotion, in this sense, by referring to veneration as an investment of honor and respect, while devotion is an investment of salvific trust. Besides the aforementioned, no other Christian denomination, especially among Protestantism, may be said to practice this devotion explicitly and with salvific trust save Roman Catholicism. The Sacred Heart of Jesus in Roman Catholicism is treated with Latria. ‘Latria’ is derived from the Greek "λατρεία" (latreia), which means "worship" or "service." In Catholicism, Latria is the honor reserved for God and God alone. In 451 AD at The Council of Chalcedon, the doctrine of The Hypostatic Union was formalised.  This ecumenical council was assembled by the Roman Emperor Marcian in response to ongoing theological disputes about the nature of Christ. The council affirmed that Jesus Christ is one person (hypostasis) with two natures, divine and human, which are united perfectly – without division or separation. This doctrine is accepted by both Catholic and Eastern Christianity. Jesus Christ, thus, is fully God, and fully man. From this principle is born the titular reference of Mary as “Mother of God” for she bore within her both the fullness of Jesus’ humanity as well as his divinity. Thus, the heart of Jesus, pertaining to his humanity and being hypostatically united to his Godhood, is deserving from this lens of godly worship and servitude. 

The Eastern Church, though sympathetic to this practice, would consider this heretical as, in their view, it divides the personage of Christ (Erhan, 2022). The Roman Church, however, in honoring the body of Christ as inseparable and fully holy and worthy of veneration as his divinity, disagrees (Hardon, 1990). Protestant Christianity would simply view this devotion as idolatrous and heretical (Hann, 2014). The devotion is controversial, yet its history is quite intriguing and illuminates the statements herein. 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began explicitly during the 17th century. The Church of Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais contains within itself an image of The Sacred Heart dating back to 1630 (Coeur De Jésus Sts-Gervais-Protais, 1630). The Sacred Heart, in this depiction, is surrounded by light. It is pierced with two or three nails, and above it hovers a crown of thorns. The devotion, however, can be recorded in traces farther back in history. In 1353, Pope Innocent VI performed a mass dedicated to The Sacred Heart (Saunders, 1994). St. Bonaventure wrote in the 13th century “Who is there who would not love this wounded heart? Who would not love in return Him, who loves so much?” The Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carthusians of the 12th, and 13th century likewise venerated The Sacred Heart (Saunders, 1994). It was, nonetheless, a devotion practiced privately among the clergy. Father back still we can find a hymn dedicated to The Sacred Heart titled ‘Summi Regis Cor Aveto’ (Hail, Heart of the Supreme King) written in 1241 by Herman Joseph which begins with the words “I hail Thee Kingly heart most high.”

The first indications of devotion to The Sacred Heart thus may be found in the 11th and 12th century. Though, because these indications are artistic, poetic, and romantic depictions, it may be possible that the oral tradition of the devotion may have already existed previously. It is likely that devotion to The Sacred Heart was born out of devotion to The Holy Wounds and The Passion. During the 12th and 13th century, Crusaders, returning with relics from The Holy Land, brought also with them fervent adoration and worship of the passion of Christ – being as it is that they were inundated with both spiritual, moral, and personal resolve to venture to these very same holy places. The practice of The Stations of the Cross, as a matter of fact, was born during the epoch of the crusades. Because these knights could not go hither and tither between their homes and Jerusalem, they created ‘stations’ whereby they may, in their devotion and prayers, emulate a walk along calvary – the same sites they visited during their crusades. The Franciscan devotion to The Holy Wounds frequently depicted the pierced heart of Jesus (Hann, 2014). Devotion to The Sacred Heart may even precede the 12th and 13th century. Manuscripts from the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries of the 11th century contain references to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Prévot, 1911). In the 17th century, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque impulsed the devotion to The Sacred Heart, converting it into a public and concrete devotion. This St. Margaret, also referred to as ‘The Apostle of the Sacred Heart’, catalised the popularity of The Sacred Heart to incredible extents. 

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was a nun of the 17th century who experienced ecstatic, passionate, and intense visions related to The Sacred Heart. On December 27th, 1673, two days after Christmas, Jesus visited Margaret and allowed her to repose her head upon his chest. Upon doing so, she had a vision of The Sacred Heart, encompassed by flames, gouged by a crown of thorns, and beset with a Cross. Later, upon beholding The Sacred Heart, Jesus spoke: “Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify to them its love.” This representation concretised the imagery of The Sacred Heart for future generations.

More visitiations of The Sacred Heart occurred for the following two years, with each visit intensifying and solidifying the devotional practice. The First Friday, The Holy Hour, and The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart were all gradually cemented. Advancing in time, we find what we have today: the cementation of the Litany of the Sacred Heart, consecrations, basilica, chapels, churches, scapulars, the Carillon-Sacré-Coeur, and even the month of June dedicated to The Sacred Heart. 


ANALYSIS


“The Imitation of the Sacred Heart” by Peter Joseph Arnoudt, published in 1863 may be regarded as The Gospel of the Sacred Heart. Comprised of and based on the visions of St. Margaret, hymns, litanies, biblical text, poems, and art, the tome provides readings and meditations for the devotee to contemplate and practice. It provides the devotee and reader with the perspective of dialoguing with the Sacred Heart. Thus, it provides analytic material for the interactions between the individual and the Sacred Heart. 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is inspired by the ardent desire to know intimately and feel on the part of the believer the love and passion of the divine. The believer, through love and adoration of God, is inspired to channalise this love into devotion and thereby receive an augmentation of love with which God responds with to their affectionate praises i.e. “My heart I unite to thine in love!” (Catholic Devotions, 1887) The believer thus forms a reciprocal and economic relationship with the love of God: The more they invest love in The Sacred Heart, the more it invests love correspondingly within them. Thereafter, these feelings of love and ardour are amplified and engage in a cycle of constantly increasing passion. It appears that the goal of devotion to The Sacred Heart is to be inundated in the flames of divine passion that encompass the heart – To experience the heat of passion for the divine and yearn to become one with it. In the Imitation of the Sacred Heart, Jesus lovingly says "Thou shalt be wholly Mine, and I will be wholly thine: thou shalt enjoy Me, in a manner ever new, ever most delightful." (p. 291) The attainment of intense, all-consuming, passionate feelings akin to St. Teresa’s ecstasy are confirmed even further by St. Margaret’s act of self-mutilation. In 1671, St. Margaret Mary engraved the word “Jesus” over her heart with a knife. This dramatic, romantic, intense act of devotion to the love of Christ is especially noted by the fact that this occurred two years prior to the visions of the Sacred Heart. Two years after the visions in 1675, she signed a contract with her blood declaring and officilising her devotion to the Sacred Heart and to spread its message (Hann, 2014). 

The Sacred Heart thus serves as a love-object to the devotee. Through devotion to the Sacred Heart, the devotee is able to express love and passion in a form that the superego permits. Within this devotion, there is a sublimated romantic and psychosexual attachment, in which desire towards another person is seemingly sublimated and purified, thereby directing the libido away from physical love towards the love and passion of the divine which is not carnal and free from superego guilt. This explains why this devotion was held to an almost secretive and exclusive regard among clergy for several decades. The historical ‘secrecy’ of the devotion betrays the crude psychosexual contents that are sublimated. Firth (1973, as cited by Hann, 2014) analysing the cult of the Sacred Heart deduced social anthropologically that the Sacred Heart began principally as a ‘private symbol’ for an individuals intimate ecstatic experiences and later developed into a ‘public symbol’ with a different meaning. In 1693, the Holy See bestowed indulgences upon Confraternities dedicated to The Sacred Heart and later officilised a feast day to the Sisters of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, but did not decree this to be a public feast day to commonfolk (Plese, 2023). The celebration was not made public till 2 centuries later in 1856 (Bainvel, 1913). The sublimation would explain why it was so private among nuns and priests and clergy, and not so much revealed, because it was a sublimation of their ecstatic, passionate, and sexual feelings. When analysing the history of the devotion, we can see a betrayal of a sense of shame and secrecy due to the unconscious sexual nature. 

Because the superego binds the cleric consciously to their vow of chastity and virginity, it prohibits the expression of any passionate feelings towards others as these sentiments may excite the mind, causing the delicate thoughts of the individual to race dangerously. The infringement and offense of this vow is fatal to the conscience of the oath-taker, as represented in the story of Atala (De Chateaubriand, 1817). Atala was the 17-year-old daughter of a Spanish conquistador and a Native-American woman. Her mother was a devout catholic, and suffered a severe illness when she was a little girl. On her deathbed, she made Atala swear her virginity to the Queen of Angels. Atala’s mother did this due to her husband seducing and later abandoning her, inciting her desire for her daughter to be protected from the pains of love. Her and a young Native-American man named Chactas fall in love, but her religious vows prohibit her from expressing her love and passion for him. This conflict between passion and devotion leads to tragic consequences when Atala, believing she cannot marry Chactas because she is already married to Christ, poisons herself with a deadly plant and dies in Chactas’ arms. 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart reconciles passion and devotion. By fusing the two, it allows the person to discharge any intense, passionate affect while transforming it into a means of prayer. The superego plays a notable role in this devotion. In the Imitation of the Sacred Heart, Jesus of the Sacred Heart speaks extensively on impending judgement and death. St. Margaret Mary replies, reassuring herself of his promise “They who love me, I love” and tells him, though he does not reply, that she trusts in his love. Through the mutually-enriching economy of the Sacred Heart, St. Margaret Mary develops a sort of “secure base” with it. Through the ability of the Sacred Heart to “hold and contain” her in psychoanalytic terms, retaliatory, sexual, and/or oedipal superego guilt is ameliorated. 

The ecstasy and pleasure experienced when loving and loved by the oedipal parent and later mature libidinal attachments is experienced via the love of the Sacred Heart. The promise of the Sacred Heart "Thou shalt be inebriated with an exceeding great sweetness, and rapt above thyself" (p. 145) thus applies here. Rather than discharging the intense love of the oedipal stage onto a mature love relation, a love relation is formed between the individual and the Sacred Heart, and the cleric who has sworn never to entertain any eroticised libidinal activity both in thought and deed may do so safely here. Hence, St. Margaret Mary’s declaration "Ah Jesus, my Beloved, purest Bridegroom of my soul! if it is so delightful to enjoy Thee in my exile, what shall it be in my own true country?"  (p. 759) 

I am not the only person who has noticed a link between the Sacred Heart and passionate love. Hann (2014) passingly remarks that St. Margaret Mary was inspired by the “burning, sexually charged furnace” of the symbolism. Devotion to the Sacred Heart may be observed as a reaction formation against puritanical Protestantism, its prohibitions against passionate affect, and its importance placed on emotional repression. The passionate temperment present in the mediterranean culture (Pemble, 1987) may have likewise facilitated the development of this devotion. 

The Sacred Heart is a symbol of love, but also suffering. It can be seen as embodying the dual aspects of Eros and Thanatos. The Sacred Heart, pierced with a lance, impaled with nails, wounded, bleeding, and aflame, represents the acknowledgement that love and suffering are inseparable. The Sacred Heart, loving yet suffering, passionately yet painfully ‘consuming itself’ in flames of love fuses Eros and Thanatos. Because the Sacred Heart of Jesus becomes an idealized father, the love he provides takes precedence over his ability to chastise. Through its symbol, the Sacred Heart offers the believer a form of catharsis. By focusing on the dual Erotic and Thanatic nature of the symbol, devotees are able to project and transfer their pain and guilt via prayer, thereby experiencing emotional release and purification. The act of loving inherently involves suffering as well as the experience of pain. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus can also be interpreted within the context of the parent-child dyad. As mentioned, it awakens early infantile feelings towards the father as a fount of love. Early relational dynamics are thereby reactivated. Unlike maternal symbolism, Jesus's heart can be seen as representing masculine authority and protection. Hence, the holding reference “Within your wounds, hide me.” (Catholic Devotions, 1887) The Sacred Heart can also serve as a means of reconciling oedipal guilt towards the father as a competitor. 

The insights of this article may very well be applied, in a parallel manner, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Rancour-Laferriere (2017) explored a Psychoanalytic Perspective on Devotion to the Virgin Mother of God in his book ‘Imagining Mary’. What devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus may mean to the nun or female devotee, the same may be said about devotion to the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary for the priest or male devotee. Future studies should examine whether devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is more common among nuns than priests and whether devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is more common among priests than nuns. Catholic Psychoanalysis would also profit from these insights as well. Ecstasy as a metaphor for divine love is found in the experiences of both the cleric and the individual believer.

I, by no means, am invalidating, blaspheming, or criticising devotion to the Sacred Heart in any manner. Quite the contrary, I am explaining how it functions for the believer on a psychological level and how efficacious it is - as history and experience demonstrates.


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