Pity
I
pity the bigot, the racist, the mean
The
xenophobe, homophobe, phobes in between
I
pity the ones who fear the unknown
Who
believe in a god with a heart made of stone 
My
gender, my color, the shape of my eyes
If
they’re different from yours, then it’s me you despise
You’re
afraid I will somehow displace you on top
That
you’ll wind up where I am. Well, I say this must stop!
Your
fear and your hate hurt you much more than me
It is
tearing you up, holy crap, can’t you see?
Can’t
you see that your hate does not come from above?
Can’t
you see that your fear must be conquered by love?
Although used here to illustarte "a god with aheart of stone," that is far from the Christian intent; the Sacred Heart is supposed to represent Jesus' love and compassion for humanity. It is often depicted as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by a lance-wound, encircled by a crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross, and bleeding. Sometimes the image is shown shining within the bosom of Jesus pointed at by his wounded hands; the wounds and crown of thorns allude to incident in the Biblcal accpunt of his crucifixion, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love. It was a relatively late development in Catholic thought. The earliest indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart are found in the 11th and 12th centuries, in the context of the religious fervor of the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. The religious zeal inspired by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Francis of Assisi in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, along with the fervor generated by the Crusades, contributed to the devekopment. It was central to the experiences of mystics such as Sts. Lutgarde of Aywieres, Mechtilde of Helfta, and Gertrude the Great. Until the 16th century, the devotion was practiced by individuals and some religious congregations with a mystical bent, especially the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carthusians, but had little doctrinal influence over all. Then it entered the ascetic domain, with special exercises and prayers devised by the Carthusian Lanspergius of Cologne, the Benedictine Louis de Blois, John of Avila, and Francis de Sales; and the Jesuits employed the image on the title-page of their books and the walls of their churches. The Polish Jesuit Kasper Drużbicki established the first theological basis for the devotion in "Meta cordium - Cor Jesu (The goal of hearts - Heart of Jesus), and Jean Eudes wrote an Office and promoted a feast for it, which the Grand Seminary of Rennes celebrated for the first time in 1670. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (the Visitandines), had a series of visions between 1673 and 1675 which she reported to her confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, who recorded their content in his journal along with his reflections on the usefulness of the devotion. After his death his journal was published in Lyons and led to widespread adoption. The next signifcant figure was the 19th-century ountess Maria Droste zu Vischering, who started having visions and interior locutions aas a girl and continued to have them as Sister Mary of the Divine Heart of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd in Porto, Portugal; these led to pope Leo XIII's consecration of all people to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pius X decreed that this consecration should be renewed every year.
ReplyDeleteThe other illustration was a Nazi poster from the 1930s that consciously borrowed motifs from Renaissance and later Christian art, in particular the familiar eagle insignia analog yo the traditional dove that descended on Jesus when he was baprized. This was part of the effort to establish National Socialism as a kind of mystical secular religion.