Sacred Heart devotion has special meaning for Metuchen seminarian

In the Catholic Church, the month of June is especially dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Many people are familiar with the image of Jesus pointing to His visible Heart, which is
symbolically flaming with love. In the Diocese of Metuchen, a young seminarian named
Edmund Luciano is rejoicing in a special way this month.
Edmund, 23, received a heart transplant on May 4 and he credits the love of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, to which he has always been drawn, and the countless prayers being sent heavenward, for
his remarkable recovery.
Just a few months ago, Edmund was apparently a healthy young man in his second year of
studies for the Metuchen Diocese in St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore.
Within a few months, he was diagnosed with dilated-idiopathic cardiomyopathy (DCM), most
probably caused by a virus. His heart was barely pumping enough blood to keep him alive when
he was put at the top of the transplant list in Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. It had been
necessary to implant a balloon pump into his heart to assist it in beating while he waited for a
new heart, which averages about two months at Beth Israel.
He didn’t have to wait very long. A perfect match on a 12-point compatibility list was found two
hours after the balloon pump was installed That was just a few days after he had been placed on
the New Jersey Sharing Network, a non-profit federally certified, state-approved organ
procurement organization.
His successful surgery took place on a First Friday, which is part of the Sacred Heart devotion.
Every first Friday of the month is dedicated to special prayer to Jesus under this title.
For Edmund, this was not a coincidence. All the connections between the devotion that honors
the love of the Heart of Jesus, and literally being given a new heart himself, an admonition which
Scripture so often uses figuratively for conversion and repentance, now have a deep and personal
meaning for him.
Even the transplant team and the cardiac office personnel were taken aback by the rapidity of
Edmund’s transplant. They call him the “miracle heart,” their “miracle case,” Edmund shared in
a story in The Catholic Spirit newspaper. God knows his parents Susan and Ed believe that the
miracle they had been praying for was granted.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has a surprisingly long history in the Church. According to
the “Catholic Encyclopedia,” there has always existed a Scripture-based devotion to the love of
God – a God Who so loved the world that He gave His only Son for our salvation (Saint John’s
Gospel, Chapter 3; Verse 16). But in the 11th and 12th centuries devotion developed to the
wounded heart of the Lord, caused by the soldier at the foot of the Cross who pierced Jesus’
Heart with a lance.
It remained a private or individual devotion for many centuries, until Christ appeared to St.
Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun in the Visitation monastery at Paray-le-Monial, France, around
1673. Jesus requested that a devotion to His Heart of love be adopted that included frequent
Communion at Mass and Communion on the First Friday of the month, in reparation for the
many ways that humanity has failed to love the Source of Love. The devotion spread to the entire
Church by the late 1800’s, with official papal approvals.
Catholics don’t worship a heart of flesh and stop there. The Heart of Jesus is symbolic of His
love and of His entire Person. In our own culture, to give one’s heart, to love with one’s whole
heart, is to love with the entire person. This Heart is that of the Incarnate Word of God. Thus,
Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart is adoration and love of the Incarnate Son of God.
Christ gave 12 promises of mercy and special graces for those who do honor His Sacred Heart to
St. Margaret Mary. Edmund is certain that Jesus keeps His promises. He has lived to experience
that the Sacred Heart took care of him, and he hopes to extend that care to the family of the 12-
year-old boy who so generously gave life to him through their own tragic loss. God willing,
when Edmund is ordained a priest, he plans to offer every First Friday Mass for the donor and
his family.
Right now, he is looking forward to tomorrow – the first day he expects to be allowed to mix
with the public again after weeks spent healing at home. Edmund is not at all surprised that
tomorrow, June15, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Carolyn Hughes is a correspondent for The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Diocese of
Metuchen. Faith appears on Thursdays.