In late October, Pope Francis released his fourth encyclical titled, Dilexit nos or, He loved us. The text is a mediation on the “human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.”
The Holy Father’s letter is divided into five chapters, beginning with an explication of what the human heart is. “The word heart,” the Holy Father writes, “evokes the inmost core of our person, and thus it enables us to understand ourselves in our integrity and not merely under one isolated aspect.”
In Chapter Two, Pope Francis focuses on how Christ’s own words and deeds manifest his heart. The heart of Christ “stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs.” The Holy Father explains that the Gospels show Jesus reaching out to those he met, “ever open to an encounter with them.” Francis cites several examples including the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and Christ’s encounter with Nicodemus.
Chapter Three underscores the real meaning of devotion to the Sacred Heart, which is “not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus,” the Pope said. Rather, what we adore is the whole Christ “represented by an image that accentuates his heart.” In contemplating the human heart of Christ we “encounter his divine love: we discover ‘the infinite in the finite.’”
Later in the chapter, Pope Francis recommends Eucharistic communion on the first Friday of each month and adoration each Thursday. For, in the Eucharist, we discover “the immense love of the heart of Christ.” Fr. Robert Gahl echoed this call on The Drew Mariani Show. The Eucharist, “is the place where we can best contemplate and unite ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and have his mercy and his grace pour out upon us so that we might rage with fire inside our hearts,” Gahl said.
In the Fourth Chapter, the Pope focuses on devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Tradition of the Church. He highlights several famous saints who spread the devotion, including St. Francis de Sales, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who popularized the devotion, her spiritual director, St. Claude de La Colombière, St. Charles de Foucauld, St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and St. Ignatius of Loyola. These modern saints took the ancient tradition and brought it to a new generation, offering to the faithful a way into a personal encounter with Christ.
Finally, the Holy Father concludes with an extended mediation on the importance of reparation and forgiveness for offenses against the Sacred Heart of Christ. “Christian reparation cannot be understood simply as a congeries of external works, however indispensable and at times admirable they may be. These need a ‘mystique’, a soul, a meaning that grants them strength, drive and tireless creativity.”
Check out the Holy Father’s encyclical here.
