The Second Vatican Council called for a renewal of popular devotions in the Church, with emphasis placed on the scriptural roots and significance of the various practices of piety prevailing among the faithful. Devotions should also be revised so as to lead people naturally into the celebration of the Church's Liturgy, Her official public worship. New Stations of the Cross services, for instance, were written up with lengthy scriptural passages included for each station. An attempt was made to revise the Stations completely, replacing the non scripture based stations with ones culled directly from the Gospel accounts, but this never caught on. The more direct linking of the Stations to the Scripture was a good thing, to put it mildly.
In the case of the Sacred Heart liturgists and theologians found little scriptural basis to support it at all. Jesus simply doesn't talk much about the heart, outside saying that his was meek and humble (Mt. 11:29). The Old Testament uses different imagery, unrelated to our understanding the heart as a symbol of love, to express the love of God for His people. The fact that it was based on a private revelation made it even more suspect in the minds of would be Post Conciliar reformers. This suspicion of private revelation is a reason behind the resistance of some pastors and liturgical experts to the newer devotion to the Divine Mercy (a discussion for another day). There is a bigger issue here, about the divide between the simple faith of the people and the intellectualized faith of a professional religious caste in the Church, but, again, this is a fight for another day. Suffice it to say, many in seminary and university theology programs have promoted the idea that popular devotions are anti Scriptural by nature and divert people from participating in the liturgy, to the detriment of the spiritual life of the faithful.
The tragedy of the decline of the Sacred Heart is that this and other devotions are not anti-Scriptural nor anti-Liturgy if they are authentic and well prepared.
First the fact that a particular devotion was born of a private revelation shouldn't scare people off. Scripture and Tradition are the two fonts of the same Revelation of God. In a way, we can say that the Tradition represents the continued handing on of what was received by the Spirit, a Spirit that continues to lead the people of God into all truth. While we are never obliged to believe in a private revelation, if the Church in Her wisdom, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of truth, has approved one as worthy of public devotion, and even establishes a solemnity in its honor, we can trust that it is in keeping with Divine Revelation. In the case of the Sacred Heart it is speaking to people today, in a language we can understand, of the deep love Christ has for us, which is at the very core of Scripture.
Secondly, the devotion to the Sacred Heart has an intrinsic Eucharistic connection. If it is properly understood and practiced it should lead us to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, then to participation in the Eucharistic Liturgy with sacramental reception of our Lord's Body and Blood (the Sacrament of Charity) and finally living the charity that we celebrate by service of our neighbor. If this has not been the case in the past, I would argue the problem is not with the devotion but with how we have handled it.
The good news is that in the past twenty years we have seen an renewed interest in Eucharistic Adoration (another bogey man of many self professed religious progressives), as well as an explosion in devotion to the Divine Mercy (one that I haven't personally embraced as a part of my spiritual life, but still promote in the parish). These and other devotions are ways of continuing to raise our minds and hearts to God through out the day, and between celebrations of the Eucharist. If they are done well, they serve as a link between our lives "on the street," our participation in the Liturgy, and then our return to the world to live the mysteries we celebrate.
My hope and prayer is that this great devotion to the Sacred Heart also makes a similar come back. It touches so beautifully on our Lord's tender, passionate, human love for us (in the best sense of what these words mean), and His Divine power to save us.
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