p. 11The Sacred Heart and the Heart of Youth

Youth is a precious and also a perilous time. It is precious because of its hope, its unbounded possibilities, its freshness, and tenderness; it is perilous by reason of these very same qualities. The impressionableness of youth, its eagerness, its inexperience, and its unspoiled anticipations are interesting and appealing. But it is the time of momentous decisions, of strong passions and feverish desires, of impulse and fancy, which unchecked and unguided may ruin a life. Literature and proverbial speech is full of expressions of the irrevocableness of youthful choices. “The boy is father to the man,” says an ancient saw. And Pope, in one of his formal couplets has put the same truth in meter:

If any time of life, then, needs strong impulses to holiness, powerful and effective aids to goodness, it is assuredly the time when we are young. Impressions then sink into the soft stuff of the forming character and help to mold it for life. Habits made then endure as long as body and soul hold together. Ideals above all, ideals which affect so deeply the generous heart of youth, when they are embraced and loved by the young, keep their sway until declining years.

For all these reasons, a real and deep devotion to the Sacred Heart, precious to every age, has a particular significance and appeal to the hearts of the young. There is in those young hearts a depth of devotion, a capacity for nobleness and self-sacrifice, which waits for some great object to call it forth. Show them a great ideal, win their loyalty to a worthy purpose, and they are able to develop a degree of love and generosity which more calculating age can sometimes scarcely attain.

In the Heart of Christ, an ideal at once the most lofty and the most appealing is, so to say, bodied forth. It is impossible to put into words the beauty, sweetness, and strength of Him Who is the Word made Flesh. As Christ, in His mortal life, was beset forever by the crowds of men, who pressed about Him, hung on His speech, and were swayed by the ineffable charm of His sacred Humanity, so through all ages the hearts of the young, drawn to Him by faith and love, cling in like manner about His Sacred Heart. He, the Teacher, the Master of hearts, can save youth from its perils, can guide it in its fervent desires, can satisfy its eagerness, and calm its passions. Nor, we may dare to say, is there any work or influence more dear to Him than that which has to do with the unspoiled hearts of youth.

But to exercise its right sway, this devotion must be intelligent, strong, and sincere. The appeal of the Sacred Heart is not hard to understand, yet it is sometimes misunderstood. Whoever would think that this devotion is a matter of sentimentality, of mere feeling, would commit an error fatal to the influence of the devotion on the heart of youth, injurious indeed to the devotion itself. In truth, it is based on reason, on faith, on the deepest and noblest feelings of the human heart. Explain it to the young as it truly is, in a way to interest and enlighten them, and it will, of its own power, win and possess their hearts.

It is a calamity to the world that the Sacred Heart, the appeal of Christ’s pure and endless love, is so little known and so little realized by the world. It is our business to make it better and better known. One has only to open the windows and let the great light of the sun shine into a room, to purify its atmosphere and make it fresh and clean. So, too, if we can open the windows of a soul to the light of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, it becomes forthwith pure and holy. The more unspoiled that soul, the more open to the rays of this great devotion, the more it will be enlightened, warmed, and purified. Thence the importance of appealing to the souls of the young and pouring into their hearts the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

With this devotion, all blessings will come to them. Purity will be fostered, piety encouraged, fervor and zeal enhanced. Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament flows necessarily from devotion to the Sacred Heart. A tender love of the Blessed Mother, in imitation of the Sacred Heart, a horror of sin, which has wounded It, a love of sacrifice in imitation of It, a zeal for souls to satisfy It—all these may be cultivated in young hearts by devotion to the Sacred Heart. In a word, the efforts we make to plant a deep and true love of that Heart of Christ in the souls of youth are fruitful of all blessings. Even the ardor of youth cannot go astray, if it is linked to the saving Heart of God.