Heart of Jesus Is Source of Reconciliation, Says John Paul II

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 23, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus can be the source of reconciliation for a world bloodied by conflicts, says John Paul II.

"How much contemporary humanity needs the message that comes from contemplating the heart of Christ, only source from which it can draw the reserves of humility and forgiveness it needs to heal the harsh conflicts that bloody it," the Pope said today.

Addressing the thousands of pilgrims gathered on a blistering hot day in St. Peter´s Square to pray the Angelus, the Holy Father noted that the month of June is especially dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

The celebration of the Sacred Heart, he said, "means to go to the profound center of the person of the Savior, seat of the love that has redeemed the world."

"If the human heart represents an unfathomable mystery that only God knows, how much more unfathomable must Jesus´ be, in which the very life of the Word moves, and in which all the treasures of wisdom and science reside, and all the fullness of divinity," the Pope continued.

"In order to save man, God wished to give him a new heart, the heart of Christ, masterpiece of the Holy Spirit, which began to beat in the virginal womb of Mary and was pierced with a lance on the cross, thus becoming the inexhaustible source of eternal life," John Paul II exclaimed.

He ended by referring to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, "mediatrix of grace and salvation," to whom he prayed for "mercy and peace for the Church and the whole world."