The 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding presents an opportunity for American Catholics to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, particularly at a time when our society is marked by polarization, antipathy, and even a profound lack of love.
In a recent Fox News survey, more than two-thirds of voters described the country negatively, with a majority believing Americans are “separated by different values.” These findings, however, are not outliers, but symptomatic of decades-long trends; indeed, over the years, many Americans have expressed significant anxieties about U.S. democracy’s survival.
It is not hyperbolic, then, to suggest the stakes are existential. If a house divided cannot stand, then surely one unloved cannot long endure. To bind our nation’s wounds, to treat others without malice, as Abraham Lincoln stated in his Second Inaugural (1865), Americans must recommit to recognizing one another’s inherent dignity — that “all men are created equal,” as the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in 1776.
Doing so will require an act of the will: the choice to love. More fundamentally, however, Americans need to reexamine not what love is, but Who Love is — for the Creator who “endowed” us with our inalienable rights is also the source of the charity, mercy, and virtue necessary for freedom and self-government.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus offers the answer and the model to imitate. On June 11, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will commemorate the 250th by consecrating the nation to His sacred heart following a novena — or nine days of prayer. Through this act, the USCCB is publicly entrusting the nation in Christ’s care.
For Catholics, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus traces back to the revelations of a 17th-century French Visitation nun and mystic, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Since then, several countries — like Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Poland, among others — have consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart. Last year, Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pontiff — emphasized the significance of reflecting on the Sacred Heart because “pierced for love, [it] is the living and life-giving flesh that embraces each of us.”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than a symbol of affection, but the means of our salvation and a love freely given “without exception,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches. It is what authentic love looks like.
While the United States is not a Christian nation in any formal sense, the nation’s moral framework has been intrinsically shaped by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Our institutions, laws, customs, and understanding of human dignity reflect moral truths inherited from that tradition. As historian Tom Holland argues in Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, many of the values modern Western societies take for granted are rooted in Christianity itself. The Founders recognized the importance of religion and virtue in sustaining liberty, with John Adams famously observing, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Christianity, and therefore Christ, stands at the center of the United States of America’s history. More importantly, Christ sustains reality itself. As the universe’s Author, Christ has written — and continually writes — His law on the human heart. What theologians, philosophers, and the Founding Fathers described as natural law reflects a deeper truth: inalienable rights are not given by government, but God.
In short, Christ is freedom — and from His living Heart, our freedoms consistently flow. Yet history has proven that when societies forgo this reality, and even suppress religious expression, inalienable rights wither and perish. One only needs to reflect on the past century’s atheistic totalitarian regimes to see how this great divorce leads to the deaths of millions.
Likewise, Love cannot be properly defined if it is not rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In recent decades, American culture has promoted the “love is love” mantra, defining love more so to mean carnal and/or sexual liberation. Yet minimizing love to merely reflect one’s sexual orientation and preferences fails to accurately capture Love’s true nature.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, love means willing the good of the other. Scripture defines that God is Love. And Christ Himself teaches, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Love, therefore, is not necessarily liberty to pursue selfish exploits, the material, or even sexual pleasure — but sacrificial, merciful, just, and charitable. As St. Pope John Paul II succinctly observed: “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
True love — and true freedom — is what Christ displayed on the cross.
Today, America’s civic crisis is, at the core, a crisis of love. Polarization, loneliness, isolation, violence, and many of the social maladies that afflict our nation stem from hearts searching for fulfillment in places where it cannot ultimately be found. As St. Augustine famously wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
The consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart is therefore more than a public act of prayer. It is an invitation to national renewal, reminding us that true freedom and love — in its fullest expression — is found in Jesus Christ.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is not only an acknowledgement of the highest good, but an opportunity to express gratitude to the One upon whom our liberties ultimately depend. Indeed, He freely gave us freedom due to His devotion to us. Moreover, by emulating Christ’s Heart, we become more capable of respecting others’ inherent dignity — seeing them as equal in God’s eyes and heart. In doing so, we can properly pursue the common good and rebuild civil society.
As America enters its 250th year, the Sacred Heart of Jesus offers an eternal reminder: a nation cannot remain free if it forgets the source of freedom, nor can it remain united if it forgets the source of love.
History turns on the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and the reinvigoration of the American spirit depends on it.
May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Andrew Fowler is the Editor of RealClearReligion. He is also the author of "The Condemned," a novella about a Catholic priest fighting off the cartel to save the residents of a small desert town (which you can find here).
