The new encyclical from Pope Francis is a deep instructive guide for all faithful to embrace and live out the love of God. “Dilexit Nos.” “He loved us.”
This fourth encyclical of Pope Francis lays out five chapters tracing church teachings on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a focused and intense invitation to bring God’s love into our lives. Manifested through the life and death of Christ, and experienced through mystical revelations over time, we are offered profound hope amidst our polarized and divided present day.
As I read the encyclical, I had a surprising realization that in many ways, this theologically dense and advanced document reflecting on the Sacred Heart of Jesus would be very easily understood and embraced by my young granddaughter. Indeed, Brenna’s heart is the center of her connection with the world. Brenna’s heart is where she holds the intimate knowledge of God’s love and care, and what propels her interactions with others. Brenna’s heart is where it hurts when people are mean, struggling, lonely, or wounded. It is out of her heart that Brenna connects with others, offering healing, care, and love.
For Brenna, there is a natural connection between the physical anatomy that pumps life through her body and the spiritual and emotional center of her being. Her heart is the center and unifying place of desire and decision. The simplicity of a child. The profoundness of purity.
Pope Francis states “Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic, and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be… In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved.”
Pope Francis goes on to say, “when we witness the outbreak of wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indifference of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart.” Rather, we are challenged to see the human lives beneath the large power struggles. Human-to-human, heart-to-heart, life affirming relationships endure.
The encyclical highlights mystical experiences of God’s love through the ages. Love changes lives and transforms actions. Indeed, opening up to God’s intimate love directly calls us to be that love to others. “We need once more to take up the word of God and to realize, in doing so, that our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters.”
Pope Francis traces the actions of Christ as he cares for “those who were considered ‘unworthy’… not from a distance but in close proximity.” Likewise, we are encouraged “to hope that every wound can be healed, however deep it may be… Good intentions are not enough. There has to be an inward desire that finds expression in our outward actions.”
Through it all, we are brought back to the purity found in our children and grandchildren’s hearts. God loves us. God is with us. Through intentional devotion and prayer, we ask our God “to have mercy on this suffering world.”
Indeed, in our divided and volatile times, we must find ways to root our lives in the Heart of Christ—in the love of Christ—in the actions of Christ.
In devotion and prayer, together, let us live with eyes wide to the forces that are destroying, oppressing, wounding, and threatening our sisters and brothers. Let us work together to build a world that heals and transforms everything not of love.
Janice Andersen
Director of Christian Life