“The center of the universe” The Heart in the Theological Universe of Saint John Eudes

Abstract

The spirituality of St. John Eudes on the Heart of Jesus and its liturgical and devotional developments is solidly based on the Bible and on the Catholic dogmatic tradition. John Eudes’ approach was to listen to these sources in relation to his own spiritual life, his strong apostolic experience and
the expectations of his time. It is in the interweaving of these data that he offered the Church a solid theology on the Heart of Jesus, which is found in particular in book XII of his last great work The Admirable Heart of the Most Sacred Mother of God. His approach seeks to unify all the elements of theology under the sign of the Heart, for what it means: the love of God given to the world through the Heart of Jesus Christ. From creation to the Parousia, all the components of faith find their source in the human-divine
Heart of the incarnate Word, since it is the same love that is from all eternity, that acts and gives itself, for the life of the world. This is mainly what this article wishes to present and demonstrate. It should be added that according to St. John Eudes, all the attitudes of the believer are summed up in the gesture of the Heart given, a love that transforms in itself all those who receive it. This is one of the conclusions of the encyclical Haurietis aquas of Pope Pius XII on the Heart of Christ: “such importance must be attached to the worship that must be given to the most sacred Heart of Jesus, as would be the practical profession of the whole Christian religion.” The task now is to make this treasure of spiritual theology more accessible, which can bring to believers and their missionary desire a renewed dynamism, a new ardor.