What is Mary’s heart? The response of Saint John Eudes

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What does Saint John Eudes mean by the “heart of the holy Virgin”?

The heart signifies the divine Spirit, which is the heart of the Father and the Son, and which they wish to give us so that it becomes our spirit and our heart:> “I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).In Sacred Scripture, the Son of God is called the Heart of the Eternal Father. The divine Father speaks of this heart to his divine spouse, the most pure Virgin, when he says:> “You have captured my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Canticle of the Degrees 4:9) or, as translated from the Septuagint: “You have stolen my heart.”In the same Scriptures, the Son of God is also called “the Spirit of our mouth” (Lamentations 4:20), “our spirit,” “the soul of our soul,” and “the heart of our heart.”All these hearts are found in the Mother of Love and form one heart, because all the faculties of her higher and inner soul were always perfectly united. Jesus, who is the Heart of the Father, and the divine Spirit, which is the Heart of the Father and the Son, were given to Mary to be the spirit of her spirit, the soul of her soul, the heart of her heart.

Three Hearts in God, One Heart

To better understand what is meant by the “heart of the Blessed Virgin,” it is necessary to know that, as we worship three hearts in God, which are one heart, and as we worship three hearts in the Man-God, which are one heart, so in the Mother of God, we worship three hearts that are one heart.The first heart in the Holy Trinity is the Son of God, who is the Heart of the Father, as mentioned above.The second is the Holy Spirit, who is the Heart of the Father and the Son.The third is Divine Love, one of the adorable attributes of the divine essence, which is the Heart of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: three hearts that are one simple heart, with which the three eternal Persons love with boundless love, and they also love us with incomparable charity.The first heart of the Man-God is his corporeal heart.As all other parts of his sacred body, it is deified by the hypostatic union with the divine Person of the Eternal Word.
The second is his spiritual heart, that is, the upper part of his holy soul, which includes memory, intellect, and will, and is particularly deified by the same hypostatic union.
The third is his divine heart, which is the Holy Spirit, by whom the adorable humanity of Jesus was animated more than by his soul and heart.
In the admirable God-Man, these three hearts are one heart. Indeed, since his divine heart is the soul, the heart, and life of his spiritual heart and his corporeal heart, he constitutes them in such perfect union with himself that these three hearts are entirely one heart, filled with infinite love for the Most Holy Trinity and with inconceivable charity for humanity.

In Mary, three hearts, one heart

The first heart of the Mother of God is the corporeal heart, enclosed in her virgin womb.The second is the spiritual heart, that is, the heart of her soul, designated by these words of the Holy Spirit: “All the glory of the Daughter of the King is within” (Ps 44:13): it is within her heart, in the innermost part of her soul.The third heart of this divine Virgin is that of which she speaks when she says: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Ct 5:2). As the Fathers of the Church have explained, this is the meaning of many holy Fathers:> “While I give my body the necessary rest, my Son Jesus, who is my heart and whom I love as my heart, always watches over me and within me.”The first of these three hearts is corporeal, but totally spiritualized by the spirit of grace and the Spirit of God, of which it is completely full.The second is spiritual, and is deified not by a hypostatic union, as is the spiritual heart of Jesus, but by a sublime participation in divine perfections.The third is divine: it is God, because it is the Son of God.These three hearts of Mary are one heart by the most holy and intimate union that has ever been or will be, after the hypostatic union.Mary meditates divine mysteries in her heart:Of these three hearts, or rather, of this single heart, the Holy Spirit spoke these divine words twice:> “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19, 51).First, Mary kept all the mysteries and wonders of her Son’s life in her own sensitive and corporeal heart in some way. Indeed, the heart is the source of life and the seat of love and all other inclinations.Thus, every movement and pulsation of that virgin heart, every function of sensitive life that flowed from it, every movement of its inclinations—all these things happened in Mary’s heart in relation to Jesus and to all the events of his life. Love led her to love Jesus, hatred to detest everything contrary to him, that is, sin; joy to rejoice in his glory and greatness; sorrow to grieve over his efforts and sufferings. And so with all her other inclinations.Second. Mary kept all these things in her heart, that is, in the noblest part of her soul, in the inmost depths of her spirit. Indeed, all the faculties of the higher part of her soul were constantly engaged in contemplating and adoring everything that happened in the life of her Son, even the smallest things.Third. Mary kept all these things in her heart, that is, in her Son Jesus, who was the spirit of her spirit and the heart of her heart. Her Son’s heart kept all these things for her. He suggested them and reminded her of them at the right time so that they might serve as food for her contemplative soul, render the honors and adorations due, and then narrate them to the holy apostles and disciples, called to proclaim them to the faithful.This is what is meant when one speaks of the admirable heart of the beloved of God: a heart that is, as we will see more clearly later, the perfect image of the adorable heart of God and of the God-man.The wonderful heart of the Mother of God is presented to us by these divine words of the Holy Spirit: “God, our King, has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth” (Ps 73:12). In the midst of the earth, but in a holy land and more holy than all the heavens, in which and through which God has wrought our salvation. I now conclude this chapter by revealing to you another mystery contained in these same words, in the midst of the earth, to honor and glorify the beloved heart of the Queen of Heaven. Let me explain.Whoever says “in the midst of the earth” says “at the center of the earth.” Therefore, if the Blessed Virgin is represented by this earth, if she is truly the holy land of the holy world, that is, the Christian world, the world of the new man, the world of divine love and holy charity, perhaps one cannot also say that the center of this precious earth, which is her heart, is the center of this new world? Certainly, yes, for three reasons.First.… (rest of the text continues)Is it not true that everything considers its center as a place of salvation and, so to speak, of conservation and rest? Is it not true that the salvation of men was accomplished in the heart of Mary? Therefore, all Christians should see in the Virgin, after God, the source of their life, the cause of their joy, the center of their happiness. This is in accordance with the language of the Holy Fathers.Here is what Saint Bernard says appropriately about the person of the Holy Virgin, but which can also be applied with all truth to her heart: “With admirable precision, Mary is called the ‘medium of the earth’. Indeed, the inhabitants of heaven and hell, those who preceded us and we who now live, those who will follow us, the children of their children, and all their posterity. How many in heaven are to be renewed, how many in hell are to be freed, how many before us saw the prophecies fulfilled, how many after us will be glorified.”[According to Saint Bernard] Mary is rightly called the ‘medium of the earth’. In fact, all the inhabitants of heaven and of the underworld, those who preceded us and we who now live, those who will come after us, the children of their children and all their descendants: they all consider her as the one who, after her Son, is the mediator between God and men, between the head and the members, between the Father and the children, between the Old and New Testaments, between heaven and earth, between justice and mercy. In her they recognize the means and center of the world, the ark of God, the ark of the covenant between God and His people, the cause of good things, the work of past and future ages. Those in heaven, that is, the angels, consider her as the one by whom the ruins caused by sin must be repaired. Those in purgatory consider her as the one by whom they must be freed. Those who preceded us consider her as the one in whom the divine prophecies must be fulfilled. Those who will come after us consider her as the one by whom they will one day be crowned with immortal glory.These words of Saint Bernard can be applied not only to the heart of the Mother of God, but they are more appropriate to her heart than to her person. The cause is, in fact, nobler than its effects, and the heart of Mary, filled with humility, is the cause and source of all the qualities above mentioned of which she is endowed, and that make her worthy to be the end, refuge, and center of all creatures who have been, are, and will exist in the universe. I conclude, first of all, that the wonderful heart of the Virgin is the means and center of the new world of the human being.

The Heart of Mary, Center of Love

Secondly, I say that the heart of the Virgin is the center of the new world, that is, the world of divine love and holy charity: a world of love and delight that knows no other law than that of charity.I affirm that in the heart of the Mother of beautiful love, all holy love and all divine charity that reside in the hearts of angels and men who love God for the sake of God and love their neighbor in God and through God, are gathered together, as if all the rays of the sun were concentrated at the bottom of a beautiful mirror capable of reflecting them all.

The Heart of Mary is Jesus, the Center of the Universe

Third. Please remember what was said at the beginning of this book. The most humble and pure Virgin captured and attracted to herself the adorable Heart of the Eternal Father, that is, His Son, becoming thus the heart of His heart, so that Jesus is the true Heart of Mary. Now, is this beloved Jesus not the love and delight, the center and joy of heaven and earth? Can it not be said that Jesus, the true Heart of Mary, is also the center of all human hearts and all angelic hearts, the center to which they should always be turned to contemplate Him without end, to aspire to Him continually, and to strive incessantly for Him? Yes, certainly, because Jesus is the place of His perfect rest and supreme happiness. Outside of Him there is nothing but turmoil, restlessness, anguish, death, and hell.

Prayer

Jesus, true Heart of Mary, draw, take, and attract our hearts to You. Make us love, desire, seek, and savor You alone. Make us aspire to You and cling to You, find no rest or satisfaction except in You, and remain continually in You: consume us in the blazing furnace of Your divine Heart and transform us into it forever. Amen.(Translated and adapted from: J. Eudes, Le cœur admirable de la très sacrée Mère de Dieu, in Id. Oeuvres complètes, VI, 165-168.)