A Review of Sacred
Heart: His Reign Has No End by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Fathom Entertainment
FCC Rating, G
OSV Rating, Not
rated at the time of this review
Reel Rating,
From time
immemorial, the heart has been the organ of the divine. Though the head
processes information, the heart gives life to body by sending blood to every
cell that needs nourishment, just as God distributes His divine life through
the sacraments. It is only right that the human heart of Jesus be a source of
devotion as the epicenter of the blood He shed for His children. While this has
always been part of Catholic history, specific devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus began with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Sacred Heart: His Reign Has No
End is a beautiful new documentary that dramatizes Alacoque’s mystical
experience and how this private revelation has changed the lives of millions.
If you need the love of the Savior, maybe His Heart can help you as well.
Alacoque
was French nun whose childhood was marked by illness, financial strain, and
much suffering. After entering the convent, she began to experience visions of
Jesus expressing sadness over the ingratitude and sinfulness of humanity. He
wanted Alacoque to convey the overflowing love He had for sinners and thus
bring them back into communion with Him. To this end, he taught her devotion to
His Sacred Heart, showin his central organ on fire with love for humanity. This
image and her writings became the impetus for the First Fridays devotion and
the Feast of the Sacred Heart (the 2nd Friday after Trinity Sunday).
The
structure of Sacred Heart is like another classic in the genre of “saint
biopic of Jesus devotion”: Love
and Mercy: Faustina. The story of Alacoque is dramatized through actors
interspliced with various interviews about the saint and the Sacred Heart in
general. The story section is fairly weak with minimal dialogue. Instead, it is
used mostly as backdrop wallpaper to spoken exposition about the mystical
visions. Much stronger are the stories of common people whose lives have been
changed after starting devotions to the Sacred Heart. There’s a young woman who
lived a fast life filled with money, career, and distractions who learns to
slow down and accept her faith. There’s a couple who initially did not share
the Catholic faith but grow closer in their twilight years after discovering
the Sacred Heart. My favorite is a drug dealer who, like St. Moses the Black,
has a radical conversation after encountering Christ’s burning love for him
despite his long rap sheet. In Matthew 7, Christ says you will know the truth
of His followers “by their fruits,” and Alacoque visions have certainly
produced vast of cornucopias of grace.
Central to
Alacoque was the idea of replacing one’s own heart with the heart of Jesus, an
image drawn from the prophet Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you.” Jesus revealed this concept in a gorgeous but somewhat
bizarre way by literally ripping open his chest to show his own beating heart
wrapped in a red glow, then putting his own heart into Alacoque’s body. The
film explores a WWI veteran turned artist who used his traumatic experiences of
death to paint Jesus with an exposed side. It might seem grotesque to a modern
audience but highlights the radical love of Christ for His people, that he is
willing repeatedly to “break his Body” for the sake of His Church. Every time
we consume the Eucharist, we consume his Flesh, which was sacrificed for our
sake.
The film is
slow paced and often repetitive, but the stories are emblematic that Christ
still has the power to change lives. While not the type of film to see as light
evening entertainment, it is an excellent reflection, as we enter the month of
the Sacred Heart, of this wonderous devotion. Paired with Eucharistic adoration
afterwards, there isn’t a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in June.
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