Essere coscienti per trasformare. Questione sociale e culto del Sacro Cuore nell’insegnamento di p. Léon Dehon

The dehonian imaginary makes clear two of the most outstanding features of Dehon: his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his social commitment. Both are present in studies about the founder and in the current Rule of life, as well as in the recent ‘magisterium’ of the General Superiors. What is the mutual influence of both traits? This work does not aim to provide an answer to this question. Just to suggest the use of an instrument which operates like a 'figure'. The described figures bring us Dehon’s ‘consciousness’ regarding relationships with God and their influence on social relations, in the building of a new society. Thus, starting from the initial figure (‘the social reign of the Sacred Heart’) underlining the emergence of the concept ‘people’, he redesigns his understanding in a new figure called 'Christian democracy'. Finally, the presentation looks at an institution that should be in a position to contribute, through an emotional, cordial, deep, tangible spirituality, to the transformation of social reality. That institution is the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, which may offer a new way of inhabiting our space and time (-perhaps a new figure of communion, of sint unum?). These lines, therefore, locate the reader on the threshold of questions that need to be more carefully studied.