6. FOR WHOM IS EXPLICIT DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART?

Explicit devotion to the Sacred Heart will be practised by "a small circle, a holy remnant of devotees, of true witnesses, fruitful patterns of genuine piety for others to imitate, a circle of which priests too would be members. "(22)

In particular, this devotion will be singularly appropriate for the priest of tomorrow since he will be a man whose "office will not carry weight through social prestige; he will have to set forth and prove its validity by the proofs of the Spirit and of power, by the authentic vigour of his experience of God."(23) Furthermore, "he will be a man who truly endures the grievous dark-ness of existence together with all his brothers and sisters, knowing that both its first source and its blessed fulfilment are found in the mystery of love which conquers by the incomprehensibility of the cross. "(24) In addition, "tomorrow's priest will be a man whose calling is most difficult of all to justify in profane terms, because his real success is always vanishing into the mystery of God and because he is not a psychotherapist dressed in the old-fashioned costume of a magician."(25)

In short, the priest of tomorrow must be man with a pierced heart

..... from which alone he draws strength for his mission. With the pierced heart: pierced through by the godlessness of life, pierced through by the folly of love, pierced through by lack of success, pierced through by the experience of his own wretchedness and profound unreliability, believing that only such communicates the strength for his mission, that all the authority of office, all objective validity of the world, all the efficacy of the sacraments' opus operatum, are only turned into the event of salvation by the grace of God if they come to man through this ineffable channel of the pierced heart. I say he is the man with the pierced heart because he is to lead .men to the very core of their existence, to their inmost heart, because he can only do so if he has found his heart; because he and others can only find this centre of existence, the heart, if they accept its being pierced, pierced by the incomprehensibility of love that is pleased to conquer only in death.(26)

Rahner concludes thus concerning the priest of tomorrow:－

Now when a priest of tomorrow who must be like this is always overtaxed by what he should be－and is by the grace of God at the bottom of his heart－anxiously asks where he is to find what he has not of himself, where he can contemplate in its archetypal simplicity what he himself should be, then there is only one thing for him to do－turn to the Lord whom he serves, look on him whom they pierced, and venerate the pierced Heart of Jesus Christ.(27)

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is also most appropriate for Jesuits whose spirituality, like all spiritualities, needs a “new protective force, protective (oddly enough) against itself; so balancing its internal forces that the particular within it builds up and does not destroy.(28) Rahner then explains that "our point is..... the devotion to the Sacred Heart is an inherent and necessary preventive for Ignatian Spirituality against its own dangers.”(29)

7. IS THE DEVOTION OUT-OF-DATE?

Rahner has no problem admitting that certain elements of the devotion to the Sacred Heart as handed down to us

….. do carry clear signs of their age; the limited viewpoint from which they have been presented can only be explained from the theological background of the seventeenth century. For example, this form of the devotion has no ordered connection with the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity….. Moreover one misses in the devotion a lively awareness of the dogma that Christ is our mediator with the Father….. But these "period" failings are not essential to the devotion and can be supplied without undue difficulty.(30)

Rahner adds that "all the ingredients of devotion to the Sacred Heart are borrowed from dogma, and in this sense the devotion is valid for all ages of Christianity."(31)

The situation of "love grown cold," however, which was the external stimulus for the devotion in the first place, far from decreasing in our time has, in fact, intensified. This has prompted Rahner to write, concerning the circumstances of secularisation, of the experience of absence of God and of "love grown cold," that since these circumstances

..... are still with us and show no sign of changing, indeed are only now revealing all their breadth and gravity, the cult of the Sacred Heart can only become more and more seasonable. If the devotion, understood in its proper and most profound sense, has suffered a reverse in very recent times, this is not because it is ill adapted to our age. Such a reverse is rather itself a sign that "charity has grown cold."(32)

Rahner now elaborates his position concerning why he considers the devotion is most modern in these words:－

Do you imagine that this devotion to the Sacred Heart is old-fashioned, dated, a piety of yesterday. What is old-fashioned? What is modern? The really modern Christian is not the man who makes a point of non-conformity to a certain past and conforms to a today that only shallow minds take for the future; he is the man who keeps the old and anticipates the real future. Much in the Church which seems old really anticipates the future before anyone has yet caught sight of it..... No, the rare, resolute people who find things of tomorrow in those of yesterday are the ones to tell us what today really is. So it may be with devotion to the Sacred Heart..... The heart of man is always unknown country only discovered by the future, the first beginning at which we have not yet arrived. And therefore understanding the heart of Jesus in faith, hope and love is one long adventure ever new, that only ends when one has arrived at one's own heart and discovered that after all the frightful pit is filled with God. This is true of the individual and it is true of the general situation at the present day.(33)

RELEVANCE OF THE ABOVE FOR THE CHURCH IN HONG KONG

Does what Rahner says about devotion to the Sacred Heart have anything to do with our local Church here in Hong Kong? I believe it does especially if we reflect on our recent past and on our future. Let me explain what I mean.

8. LOVE GROWN COLD IN HONG KONG?

What has been the most significant event for our Church in Hong Kong in the last twenty or so years? This is a moot point, but I would like to stick my neck out and single out the Golden Jubilee Affair as the most momentous event in our recent history. The reason why I say this is that that event was the occasion when for the first time the Church in Hong Kong came face to face with the fact that She is the Church of sinners. The sin I speak about is not an isolated, individual sin, but rather the disunity, disharmony and division in our Church during the months in which the Golden Jubilee affair occurred. During this time priest was fighting against priest, sister against sister, brother against brother and Christian against Christian.

I happened to be away at the time when the main events of the Golden Jubilee affair were taking place. The reports I received showed that there was a real confrontation in the Church here. Having returned from overseas recently, I have discovered that there is still much rancour concerning the whole Golden Jubilee episode.

Now I am quite willing to admit that my perception of the situation may be quite wrong. Indeed I hope and pray that I may be wrong and that in fact the situation in our local Church following the Golden Jubilee affair is just as it was prior to the those same events. But at least the question must arise whether or not our charity has grown cold. If it has and if there is discord in our local Church then the only way it will be healed is by forgiveness, compassion and reparation; it will not be healed by renewed accusation,' by vituperation and by making demands.

In a way the Church of Hong Kong has reached the point of no return. Either we get on our knees and pray for forgivness for our own part in injuring the Body of Christ and for the grace to be able to forgive our enemies (especially our enemies within the local Church) from the heart, or else the damage to the Church in Hong Kong will be permanent because, in a very real sense, we wish it to be so; even God cannot forgive if we do not want to forgive and be forgiven.

If, however, we humbly admit our own contribution to the damage done to Christ's Body as incarnated in Hong Kong and forgive our enemies from our hearts and, furthermore, pray for them and make reparation for their sins as well as our own, if we do this then the Church in Hong Kong will rise like our Master, wounded but glorious. The choice is ours and the time for choosing is now.

9. THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH IN HONG KONG

The discord and divisions in the Church in Hong Kong spoken about just now will pale in comparison to the disunity we will all experience in the local Church if Hong Kong is returned to the Chinese Government. If that day comes there will be some who will refuse to compromise on any issue, there will also be those who will join the Patriotic Church and then there will be those who will wander around like lost sheep without a shepherd, not knowing what to do or what to believe.

Objective criteria for orthodoxy will become clouded over with time: contact with the Vatican will become more and more problematic as silence descends on the local Church; unity with the bishop will be no less uncertain since there will be some bishops who will be suspect; relations between the priests and the faithful will become harder and harder and, for many, all will seem to be lost.

If that time comes it will be hard to evaluate who belongs to the true Church and who does not. When all other signs seem ambiguous the indisputable sign of the True Church will be recognized by those who are true followers of Christ: do they love one another, do they love their enemies and pray for them, do they make reparation for the wrongs their enemies do, do they forgive those who persecute them? ..... If they do they are the true Church.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus teach us to love and pray for our enemies and give us the grace to forgive them from the heart.

22.Karl Rahner, "The Man with the Pierced Heart," Servants of the Lord, trans. Richard Strachan (London: Burns and Oates, 1968; New York: Herder and Herder, 1968): p. 110.

23.Ibid., p. 111.

24.Ibid., p. 112.

25.Ibid., p. 113. Cf. Karl Rahner, "Unity－Love－Mystery," Theological Investigations , vol. 8: Further Theology of the Spiritual Life 2, trans. David Bourke (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1971; New York: Herder and Herder, 1971): pp. 229 - 250, concerning the relationship between the Sacred Heart and Mystery.

26.Ibid., pp. 113 - 114.

27.Ibid., p. 115.

28.Karl Rahner, "Ignatian Spirituality and Devotion to the Sacred Heart," Woodstock Letters 91 (Feb., 1962): p. 22.

29.Ibid., p. 23.

30.Karl Rahner, “Some Theses,” p.142-143.

31.Ibid., p.143.

32.Ibid.

33.Karl Rahner, "The Man with the Pierced Heart," pp. 117 - 118.