Step 3: The Message of Paray, Part One: God So Loved the World

After the first two introductory steps, let us now delve into the first part of our journey by immersing ourselves in the message of Paray.

The events of Paray-le-Monial took place at the end of the 17th century. Three major apparitions of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary convey the message delivered there to all of humanity. These apparitions occurred between late December 1673 and June 1675.

We can identify three significant dimensions of this message: a declaration of love, presented in this step; a complaint (“love is not loved”) and a request (“return love for love”) in the next step. Thus, this step explores the first dimension of the message of Paray: the declaration of love.

1. Firstly, today, a Heart Passionate with Love

It is in the first great apparition that this declaration is most fully developed. Jesus expresses Himself as follows: “My divine Heart is so passionate with love for humanity, and for you in particular, that being unable to contain within Himself the flames of His ardent charity, He must spread them through you, and manifest Himself to them in order to enrich them with His precious treasures that I reveal to you.” (Autobiography, § 53)

Margaret Mary testifies: “He unveiled to me the wonders of His love, and the inexplicable secrets of His Sacred Heart, which He had always kept hidden from me, until the moment He opened it to me for the first time, but in such an effective and sensible manner that He left me no room to doubt.” (Autobiography, § 53)

Margaret Mary thus describes the second great apparition: “It was then that He revealed to me the inexplicable wonders of His pure love, and to what excess He had gone to love humanity.” (Autobiography, § 55)

The most well-known expression of this love can be found in the third great apparition. Jesus says: “Behold this Heart that has so loved humanity that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself, to demonstrate His love for them.” (Autobiography, § 92)

1. Several Aspects Nourish Our Prayer

Jesus expresses a “passionate” love towards us. It is not a distant love; it is a burning, ardent love for each of us. It is a love that “spares nothing,” as the Gospel expresses: “Jesus, having loved those who were in the world, loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Jesus has an immense thirst to communicate this love from His Heart to us. This is not about our efforts to reach or deserve the love of God; it is about the Heart of Jesus, “unable to contain” all the acts of love He bears towards us, to the point that “He must spread them.” The Heart of Jesus is consumed by a thirst: the thirst for His love to reach us and set us ablaze. We can contemplate this and be moved by this utterly irrepressible aspect of Jesus’ desire for us.

Jesus states in the Gospel: “I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). The fire of His love: “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.” (John 15:9).

Jesus affirms that His love is “for humanity, and for you in particular.” This “for you” concerns each of us. It is as if Jesus is saying: My Heart remains restless until what I have done for all “men” takes on a personal shape, a “particular” rooting in your life. At Paray-le-Monial, Jesus tells us that the love He has for all humanity, the salvation He works for all humanity, His presence that He maintains with all humanity… He wants this to take on a wholly personal reality in each of our lives.

Jesus reveals to Saint Margaret Mary the secrets of His Heart and the wonders of His love, to the point that she can never doubt it again. This is a grace we can ask for here at Paray-le-Monial. It is the grace received by Saint Margaret Mary, the grace that thousands of pilgrims have received, the grace of the Heart of Jesus: to encounter the personal love of Jesus for me.

1. Margaret Mary Experiences This Grace Through Two Very Expressive Gestures

She rests for several hours on the breast of Jesus, in the manner of Saint John, the beloved disciple (John 13:23). She hears the Heart of Jesus. She hears His love. And she allows herself to be seized: “He made me rest a long time on His breast, where He revealed to me the wonders of His love and the inexplicable secrets of His Sacred Heart that He had always kept hidden from me until then.”

Jesus takes Margaret Mary’s heart and plunges it into His, aflame, before returning it to her, all aglow. Here is her account: “He asked for my Heart, and I begged Him to take it. He placed it in His adorable Heart, in which He showed it to me as a little atom consumed in this ardent furnace, from which, withdrawing it like a burning flame in the shape of a heart, He returned it to the place from which He had taken it.”

We will certainly not live these experiences in the same way, but we can ask for the same graces: to rest upon the Heart of Jesus so that He may reveal to us His passionate love, particularly for me; and to ask that He plunge our hearts into His own Heart, to enflame them with His charity.

Conclusion

In an age marked by Jansenism, where the fear of God and a very moralistic view of the Christian faith prevail, the Lord will bring the remedy: the love of His Heart. In an era influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, where God becomes very distant and humanity risks falling into the pride of an all-powerful reason, the Lord reveals His Heart, gentle and humble. But this love is not received, and it calls for a response of love. These are the other dimensions of the message of Paray that we will explore in the fourth step of our journey.