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Copyright © Peter N. Névraumont
[in progress]
Unless otherwise noted, all biblical quotes are from the Douay-Rheims
version.
ca. 27 A.D. Early in his ministry after hearing news of John the
Baptist, Jesus tells his disciples, “Take up my yoke upon you,
and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart….”
(Matthew 11:29) This is the only recorded instance in which Jesus
indisputably speaks of his own heart.
ca. 28. The Gospel of John, which the majority
of biblical scholars agree was the last of the gospels to be formalized
ca. 90 A.D., quotes Jesus as instructing his disciples, “…If
any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth
in me, as the scripture saith: Out of his belly [koilia]
shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37–38) The
Greek word koilia has been variously translated as the belly,
the bosom, the entire cavity of the torso, the gullet, the womb,
and the soul or heart. In fact, an alternative translation of this
passage found in surviving writings of Origen (ca. 185–254)
reads, “…if any man thirst, let him come to me; And let
him drink, who believes in Me. As the Scripture says: Streams of
living water shall flow from his bosom.” And the Revised Standard
Version Bible has it “…’Out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water.’” However translated, this passage
has become an especially important touchstone in the emerging devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
ca. 30. Another event described in the New Testament that in succeeding
centuries found at echo in the experiences of visionaries who reported
encounters with the Sacred Heart of Jesus took place during the
Last Supper. “Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of
his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned
to him and said to him: ‘Who is it of whom he speaketh?’
He therefore, leaning on the breast of Jesus, saith to him: ‘Lord,
who is it?’” (John 13:23–25) This scene has been
the subject of numerous paintings, particularly from the Late Middle
Ages and Early Renaisssance, including ones by Fray Nicholás
Borrás (1570), Andrea del Castagno (1447), Jacopo Bassano
(ca. 1546), Daniele Crespi (1624–1625), Vallentin de Boulogue
(1625–1626), Giotto di Bonone (1320–1325), Daccio di Buoninsega
(1308–1311), Albercht Dürer (woodcuts / 1510–1511),
Taddeo Gaddi (ca. 1360), Lorenzo Ghiberti (“The Gates of Paradise”
doors, Baptistry of the Florentine Duomo / 1403–1424), Domenico
Ghirlando (1476), Jaume Hugutet (1470), Jaume Baço Jacomart
(ca. 1450), Pietro , Lorenzetti (ca. 1320), Monaco Lorenzo (1394–1395),
Master of the Housebook (1475–1478), Pieter Pourbus (1548),
Jaume Serra (1370–1400), Luca Signorelli (1502), Alonso Vázquez
(1588–1603), and an anonymous ca. 1350 polychromed and gilded
wood statue Jésus et Jean. Later in the Garden of Gethsamane
it is recorded that “Peter turning about, saw that the disciple
whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper
and said: “Lord, who is he that shall betray thee?’”
(John 21:20) The “disciple whom Jesus loved” has been
identified variously as Philip, Judas Thomas, Judas Iscariot, and
Lazarus, though traditionally as John the Evangelist.
ca. 30. The Gospel of John reports that one
of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus, seeing that he was dead,
“with a spear opened his side: and immediately there came out
blood and water.” (19:34) This act, like many of the events
in Jesus’ life, was seen as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy,
in this case one found at Zechariah 12:10, “…and they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced….” Not surprisingly,
from early on artists who illustrated this event and theologians
who expounded on it, assumed that the spear that pierced Jesus’
side rent his heart. Commenting on this passage, Pope Pius XII (1876–1958)
in his 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion to the
Sacred Heart) concluded, “What is here written of the side
of Christ, opened by the wound from the soldier, should also be
said of the Heart which was certainly reached by the stab of the
lance, since the soldier pierced it precisely to make certain that
Jesus Christ crucified was really dead.”
ca. 62. Paul of Tarsus (ca. 9–67 A.D.)
is accepted by almost all biblical scholars to be the author of
the Philippians, an epistle to the church at Philippi, located at
the head of the Aegean Sea at the foot of Mt. Lekani. Paul writes,
“For God is my witness how I long after you all in the bowels
[splanchna] of Jesus Christ.” (1:8) Splanchna
generally meant the upper viscera?the heart, liver, and lungs?so
that this verse has been reasonably interpreted to refer to Jesus’
heart.
ca. 150. The oldest surviving explicit mention
of Jesus’ heart outside the Bible is found in the writings
of Justin the Martyr where he writes, “As, therefore, Christ
is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried
out from the heart [koilia] of Christ, are the true Israelitic
race.” (Dialogues with the Jew Tryphon, Chapter 135)
ca. 180. An implied mention of Jesus’
heart is found in Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies)
by Irenaeus (ca. 120–202). In this attack on Gnosticism, especially
that of Valentinus (ca. 100–160), he writes, “For where
the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit
of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the
Spirit is truth. Those, therefore, who do not partake of Him, are
neither nourished into life from the mother’s breasts, nor
do they enjoy that most limpid fountain which issues from the body
of Christ….” (Book III, Chapter 26) The reference here
is certainly to John 7:37–38.
ca. 204. Hippolytus (130–235) in his exegesis
on the book of Daniel writes, “This stream of four waters flowing
from Christ we see in the Church. He is the stream of living waters.
And he is preached by the four evangelists. Flowing over the whole
earth, he sanctifies all who believe in him. This is what the prophet
heralded with the words: ‘Streams flow from his heart [koilia].’”
(Book I, Chapter 1) The “prophet” is John the Evangelist,
purported author of the Gospel of John, and the reference is again
to John 7:37–38.
ca. 255. Another early reference to the Johannine verse is made
by Cyprian of Carthage (died ca. 258): “The Lord cries aloud,
that ‘whosoever thirsts should come and drink of the rivers
of the living water that flowed out of His bosom.’" (Epistle
LXXII, 11, To Jubianus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics)
ca. 390. Again harkening back to John 7:37-38,
Ambrose of Milan (ca. 340–397) in his exegesis of Psalm 33
exhorts his readers to, “Drink of Christ, for he is the fountain
of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the stream whose torrents brought
joy to the City of God. Drink of Christ, for he is peace. Drink
of Christ, for the streams of living water flow from his bosom.”
(Enarrationes in xii. Psalmos Davidicos)
[more to follow]
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