The Vatican published on Thursday the new encyclical of Pope Francis, entitled Dilexit Nos (He loved us) on “the divine and human love of the heart of Jesus Christ,” a 45-page text in the Spanish version.
“His open heart precedes us and awaits us unconditionally, without requiring a prerequisite to be able to love us and propose his friendship: ‘he loved us first’ (1 Jn 4:10). Thanks to Jesus ‘we have come to know the love that God has for us and we have believed’ in that love (1 Jn 4:16),” notes the Holy Father at the beginning of the encyclical, the fourth of his pontificate after Lumen fidei (2013), written “together” with Benedict XVI; Laudato si’ (2015), on the care of creation; and Fratelli tutti (2020), on human fraternity.
The encyclical has 5 chapters and a conclusion: the first is titled The importance of the heart , the second Gestures and words of love, the third This is the heart that loved so much , the fourth and longest is Love that gives to drink , and the fifth is called Love for love.
In paragraph 14 of the encyclical, Pope Francis points out: “One could say that, ultimately, I am my heart, because it is what distinguishes me, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people. The algorithm at work in the digital world shows that our thoughts and what our will decides are much more ‘standard’ than we believed. They are easily predictable and manipulable. Not so the heart.”
“The heart makes every authentic bond possible, because a relationship that is not built with the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation of individualism,” the Holy Father affirms in number 17 and adds: “anti-heart is a society increasingly dominated by narcissism and self-reference” that loses the “capacity for healthy relationships” and becomes incapable “of welcoming God.”
Pope Francis devotes numbers 52 to 58 to speaking about this theme and explains that “the image of Christ with his heart, although by no means an object of worship, is not one among many that we could choose. It is not something invented on a desk or designed by an artist, ‘it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the center, the source from which salvation for all humanity flowed.’”
In this regard, the Holy Father says that “although the drawing of a heart with flames of fire can be an eloquent symbol that reminds us of the love of Jesus Christ, it is appropriate that this heart be part of an image of Jesus Christ. In this way, his call to a personal relationship of encounter and dialogue is even more significant.”
After specifying that the image of the Heart of Jesus “must refer us to the totality of Jesus Christ in his unifying center and, simultaneously, from that unifying center it must guide us to contemplate Christ in all the beauty and richness of his humanity and divinity.”
In this sense, the Holy Father explains that “it is not that before the images of Christ ‘we must ask something of them, or that we must put our trust in the images, as the pagans did in ancient times’, but that ‘through the images that we kiss and before which we uncover our heads and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ’.”
In number 67, in the third chapter, the Pontiff highlights that “in the Heart of Christ, we feel loved by a human heart, full of affections and feelings like ours. His human will freely wants to love us and this spiritual desire is fully illuminated by grace and charity.”
“When we reach the innermost part of that Heart, we are flooded with the immeasurable glory of his infinite love as the eternal Son, which we can no longer separate from his human love. Precisely in his human love, and not by turning away from it, we find his divine love; we find ‘the infinite in the finite,’” he adds.
Pope Francis also recalls some saints such as Saint Claude de la Colombiere, Saint Therese of Jesus, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Augustine, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Charles de Foucauld or Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque – the latter known as the spreader of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – who have meditated on the Heart of Jesus throughout the history of the Church.
“Saint John of the Cross wanted to express that in the mystical experience the immeasurable love of the risen Christ is not felt as alien to our life. The Infinite somehow lowers itself so that through the open Heart of Christ we can live a truly mutual encounter of love,” the Pontiff emphasized.
Pope Francis comments in number 90 that Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Patroness of the Missions, “had discovered in the Heart of Christ that God is love: ‘He has given me his infinite mercy, and through it I contemplate and adore the other divine perfections.’ That is why the most popular prayer, directed like a dart to the Heart of Christ, says simply: ‘I trust in You.’ No more words are needed.”
“Saint Augustine opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as a place of personal encounter with the Lord. That is to say, for him the breast of Christ is not only the source of grace and the sacraments, but he personalizes it, presenting it as a symbol of intimate union with Christ, as a place of an encounter of love,” the Pope states in number 103.
The fourth chapter of the encyclical, entitled Love that Gives Drink , speaks of the Heart of Jesus based on the Bible, the Word of God, citing various books such as the Apocalypse, written by Saint John the Evangelist.
Pope Francis also dedicates a few words (numbers 143 to 147) to the Society of Jesus and recalls some priests who have spoken explicitly about the Heart of Jesus – to whom the Jesuits have consecrated themselves at least twice – such as St. Francis Borgia, St. Peter Faber, St. Alonso Rodriguez, “Father Alvarez de Paz, Father Vicente Caraffa, Father Kasper Drużbicki and many others.”
A request from Pope Francis
In number 160, speaking about the compassion of people for the suffering of the Heart of Jesus, the Holy Father writes: “I pray that no one mock the expressions of believing fervor of the holy faithful people of God, who in their popular piety try to console Christ.”
“And I invite everyone to ask themselves whether there is not more rationality, more truth and more wisdom in certain manifestations of that love that seeks to console the Lord than in the cold, distant, calculated and minimal acts of love of which those of us who claim to possess a more reflective, cultivated and mature faith are capable,” he added.
In the fifth chapter of the encyclical, Pope Francis refers to “some echoes in the history of spirituality” and draws on some saints such as St. Charles de Foucauld, St. Francis de Sales and St. Bernard.
“Saint Bernard, while inviting us to unite with the Heart of Christ, took advantage of the richness of this devotion to propose a change of life based on love,” he writes about the latter.
“Saint Charles de Foucauld wanted to imitate Jesus Christ, to live like him, to act as he acted, to always do what Jesus would have done in his place. For this goal to be fully realized, he needed to conform to the sentiments of the Heart of Christ.
Thus the expression ‘love for love’ appeared once again, when he said: ‘Desire for suffering, to return love for love, to imitate him’”, the Holy Father indicates in number 179.
The Pontiff also reflects on the importance of “reparation” starting from the Heart of Christ and the “offering of Love,” for which he resorts to the writings of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.
“Sisters and brothers, I propose that we develop this form of reparation, which is, ultimately, to offer to the Heart of Christ a new possibility of spreading in this world the flames of his ardent tenderness,” the Pope notes in number 200.
The Pope also says: “Christ asks you, without neglecting prudence and respect, not to be ashamed to acknowledge your friendship with him. He asks you to dare to tell others how good it is for you to have met him.”
In some way, he continues, “you have to be a missionary, like the apostles of Jesus and the first disciples, who went out to announce the love of God, to tell people that Christ is alive and that it is worth knowing him. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus lived this as an inseparable part of her offering to merciful Love.”
In the conclusion of the encyclical, Pope Francis writes: “Today everything is bought and paid for, and it seems that our very sense of dignity depends on things that are obtained with the power of money. We are driven only to accumulate, consume and distract ourselves, prisoners of a degrading system that does not allow us to look beyond our immediate and petty needs.”
“The love of Christ is outside this perverse machinery and only he can free us from this fever where there is no longer room for gratuitous love. He is capable of giving heart to this earth and reinventing love where we think that the capacity to love has died once and for all.”
The Pontiff stresses that “the Church also needs this, so as not to replace the love of Christ with outdated structures, obsessions from other times, worship of one’s own mentality, fanaticisms of all kinds that end up taking the place of that free love of God that liberates, vivifies, gladdens the heart and nourishes communities.”
“From the wound in Christ’s side flows that river that never runs dry, that never passes by, that offers itself again and again to those who want to love. Only his love will make a new humanity possible,” he stressed.
During the press conference to present Pope Francis’ new encyclical, theologian and Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto (Italy), Msgr. Bruno Forte, remarked that Dilexit Nos “offers the key to understanding the entire Magisterium” of Pope Francis.
He pointed out that the Holy Father himself explains that “what is expressed in this document allows us to discover that what is written in the social encyclicals Laudato si’ and Fratelli tutti is not alien to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ, since by drinking from that love we become capable of weaving fraternal ties, of recognizing the dignity of every human being and of caring together for our common home.”
Likewise, Bishop Forte pointed out that, far from being a magisterium “limited to the social,” as it has sometimes been “clumsily” interpreted, the message that the Pope has given and continues to give to the Church and the entire human family “comes from a single source, presented here in the most explicit way: Christ the Lord and His love for all humanity.”
For the prelate, it is also “particularly moving” that the Pontiff specifically cited texts written by Diego Fares, a Jesuit priest and “spiritual son” of the Holy Father.
He also said that this encyclical is an “extremely current” message and that with it Pope Francis invites us to be missionaries “in love” with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in which we can find consolation.
He also explained that it is an encyclical, because it wishes to “tell the Church that it is a decisive and particularly important document” and with this “one can interpret the value that Francis gives to this document.”
He also said that with this document Pope Francis intends for human beings to allow themselves to be surprised by “their deepest dimension,” which is that of the heart.
For her part, Sr. Antonella Fraccaro, General Director of the Disciples of the Gospel, stressed during the briefing at the Holy See Press Office the importance of “relationships and placing them at the centre of our lives”.
“It is therefore a matter of considering our heart in a co-responsible dialogue, ‘because only the heart creates intimacy, true closeness between two beings’,” he stressed.