“All of us must rediscover the importance of the heart,” Pope Francis declares in his the fourth encyclicalpublished on October 24, which speaks of “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.” In it, he calls the faithful to rediscover devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, through it, to love our brothers and sisters in the church and in the world.

“Delighted No.” (“He loved us”) is the title of this 28,000-word letter that speaks to the depth of Francis’ relationship with Jesus.

“It is born from the spiritual experience of Pope Francis, who feels the drama of the enormous suffering caused by the wars and the many (forms of) violence that are happening now,” Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, a well-known theologian, said at the time who presented the text at a press conference in the Vatican. “He wants to be close to those who suffer by proposing the message of divine love that comes to save us.”

(Top 5 conclusions from “Dilexit Nos”, Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart)

Archbishop Forte said the encyclical provides “the key” to reading Francis’ two social encyclicals. The Pope confirms this when he writes in “Dilexit Nos”: “This document can help us to see that the teaching of the social encyclicals”Laudato si’‘ and ‘Fratelli Tutti‘ is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ. For by drinking from the same love, we become able to create bonds of brotherhood, recognize the dignity of every human being, and work together to care for our common home.”

Francis continues:

In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their worth seems to depend more and more on what they can amass with the power of money. We are constantly driven to buy, consume and distract ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, but only that love can free us from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for free love. The love of Christ can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think the capacity to love has been permanently lost.

Francis surprised Vatican watchers by releasing the encyclical on the eve of the end of the Synod on Synodality. Perhaps it was no accident, as it contains an important message for synod delegates and bishops around the world.

He reminds them: “Also, the Church needs this love, lest the love of Christ be replaced by outdated structures and concerns, excessive attachment to our own ideas and opinions, and fanaticism in all kinds of forms, which end up it takes the place of God’s free love that liberates, enlivens, brings joy to the heart, and builds communities.”

Rediscovering the heart

In the first of the five chapters of this spiritual treatise, Francis says that in this “era of superficiality” there is a need to “rediscover the importance of the heart”. He recalls how the Bible speaks of the heart as “the place of sincerity, where deceit and disguise do not take place. It usually indicates our true intentions, what we really think, believe and want, the ‘secrets’ we don’t tell anyone: in a word, the bare truth about ourselves.”

The Jesuit pope, who has often been described as having the charisma of cardiognosis, or “knowledge of the heart,” writes:

You could say that I am my heart, for it is my heart that sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity, and connects me to other people. Algorithms operating in the digital world show that our thoughts and will are much more “uniform” than we previously thought. They are easily predictable and therefore can be manipulated. It is not the case of the heart.”

Always attentive to the real world, Pope Francis says that “when we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indifference of other countries, or small power struggles for partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing heart.”

But, he adds:

We only need to see and listen to the elderly women – on both sides – who are at the mercy of these devastating conflicts. It is heartbreaking to see them crying for their murdered grandchildren or longing to die themselves after losing their homes where they have spent their whole lives… To see these elderly women cry and not feel that it is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has become heartless.

Pope Francis reminds people that “only starting from the heart will our communities succeed in uniting and reconciling different minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters”.

The heart in history

In chapter 2, the Pope states that “the heart of Christ, as a symbol of the most profound and personal source of His love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel”.

He recalls that “Christ showed the depth of His love for us not by long explanations, but by concrete actions.”

In chapter 3, Francis explains that in “devotion to the heart of Christ… what we contemplate and adore is the whole of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, represented by an image that emphasizes his heart.”

He recalls that “universal human experience has made the image of the heart something unique. Indeed, throughout history and in different parts of the world, it has become a symbol of personal intimacy, affection, emotional attachment and the capacity for love… When two people fall in love and become close to each other, their hearts beat faster; when we are abandoned or betrayed by someone we love, our hearts sink.”

(Gives Sacred Heart Devotion a Second Chance)

“We must never forget that the image of the heart speaks to us of the body and of earthly realities,” writes Francis. “In this way, it points us to the God who wanted to become one of us, a part of our history and a companion in our earthly journey.”

He notes, however, that “love and the human heart do not always go together, for hatred, indifference, and selfishness may also reign in our hearts.” But, he writes, “we cannot achieve fulfillment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others; only through love do we become fully ourselves.”

Even in today’s world, he writes, “(as) the heart continues to be seen in the popular mind as the affective center of every human being, it remains the best means of signifying the divine love of Christ, forever united and inseparable with his all-human love.”

Francis recalls that “in many ways, the heart of Christ has always been present in the history of Christian spirituality”. He summarizes how this devotion is rooted in the Scriptures and has developed over the centuries in the life of the church, including the writings of many saints and recent popes.

He writes that Saint John Paul II presented the growth of this devotion in recent centuries “as a response to the rise of rigorous and disembodied forms of spirituality that neglected the richness of God’s mercy” and “as a timely call to resist attempts to create a world that leaves no room for God.”

Pope Francis says that today a case can be made that “instead of Jansenismwe are facing a strong wave of secularization that seeks to build a world free of God. In our societies, we are also witnessing a proliferation of various forms of religiosity that have nothing to do with a personal relationship with the God of love, but are new manifestations of a disembodied spirituality.”

The Pope calls for a “renewed reflection on the love of Christ represented in His Sacred Heart. For there we find the whole Gospel, a synthesis of the truths of our faith, all that we adore and seek in faith, all that answers our deepest needs.”

In chapter 4, Francis recalls how this devotion “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints, all quite different from one another; in each of them, devotion acquires new shades.” He mentions St. Bonaventure, St. Francis de Sales, and several “holy women,” including Julian of Norwich and St. Margaret Mary Alacoquewhose 350th anniversary is currently being celebrated.

Not surprisingly, Francis, the first Jesuit pope, devotes an entire section to the place of the Sacred Heart in the history of the Society of Jesus, from Saint Ignatius Loyola to Pedro Arrupe.

The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius encourage people to “enter the heart of Christ” to “broaden our own hearts” and train you to “feel and savor” the message of the Gospel and “discuss it with the Lord,” the pope writes.

He remembers how St. Charles de Foucauld and Saint Therese of Lisieux– to which Francis is particularly devoted – “without intending to, he reshaped certain aspects of the devotion to the heart of Christ and thus helped us to understand it in an even more evangelical spirit”.

A missionary heart

In the encyclical, Francis refers to aspects of the spirituality that accompanied devotion to the Sacred Heart, including “the inner desire to offer consolation to that heart” and “the practice of ‘repair'”.

In the final chapter, Francis emphasizes the community, social and missionary dimension of any genuine devotion to the Heart of Christ, which, as it “leads us to the Father”, also “sends us to our brothers and sisters”.

In a significant passage, Pope Francis writes:

The Christian message is attractive when experienced and expressed in its totality: not merely as a refuge for pious thoughts or an occasion for impressive ceremonies. What kind of worship would we be giving to Christ if we were to be content with an individual relationship with Him and show no interest in alleviating the suffering of others or helping them live a better life? Would it please the heart that loved us so much if we were to enjoy a private religious experience while ignoring its implications for the society in which we live?

He then emphasizes “the missionary dimension of our love for the heart of Christ” and says: “To be able to speak of Christ, by testimony or by word, in such a way that others seek to love Him, is the greatest desire of every missionary.” .

“If we are concerned with helping others, this does not in any way mean that we distance ourselves from Jesus,” the Pope writes. “Rather, we meet him in another way.”