The Sacred Heart statue of Holy Souls Mountain

The statue was set up at the base of Holy Souls Mountain, about 70 yards up the way, and this long before I came here. Looking at where it is, and how steep the ridge is at that point, and figuring the weight of this statue must be in the many hundreds of pounds, and hearing the harrowing story of how it arrived where it is, I can only say that it was all pretty miraculous: lots of guardians angels to the rescue so that no one died in the attempt.

It was originally in, of all places, a protestant cemetery. It looks to have been vandalized, with the hands missing. It had also been decapitated. Idiotic kids, I suppose. Anyway, it came into the neighbor’s possession. He called it the Sacred Heart, though there is no Heart visible, that having been given to us. He said that we are to provide the hands for Him in this world. I can go along with that, for sure! The statue’s been out on the chaos of the mountain for quite a while, and has suffered the ravages of the mountain. Still, there are some mightily penetrating eyes to look right into your soul, so that you might realize that you are invited, in heaven, to know as you are known, as Saint Paul has it.

Sometimes people think that “devotion” to the Sacred Heart is just an arbitrarily chosen “devotion” among so many other devotions. Well, no. One might be devoted, as it were, but in this case, by way of adoration, for we are dealing with the Person of Jesus.

There is no option here. ”Every eye will see Him, each one of those who have pierced Him through, and all tribes of the earth will beat their breasts over Him. Truly. So may it be” (Revelation 1,7). But when we say, throughout the centuries, and again today, in whatever country, Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa (through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault), we are not to look to ourselves in despair, but to Him in hope, for He has loved us just this much, He being just this good to us, just this kind. Truly. So may it be.