He Loved Us
-Michael Sullivan
Pope Francis released a new encyclical entitled “Dilexit Nos” or, translated from Latin, ‘He Loved Us’ which was given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on October 24th, 2024. This encyclical letter, according to Pope Francis, was written to “help us see that the teaching the social Encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ.217” The social Encyclicals Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You), written in 2015, and Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers), written in 2020, both implored the faithful to remember our social responsibility as Catholics to our fellow man and our world.
A careful reading of this encyclical from Pope Francis teaches us the history of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But rather than a dry repetition of quotes from saints who fostered this attachment to the open Heart of Christ, Pope Francis connects love of Jesus to the Church’s repeated efforts in different centuries to combat vices of the world. The pope explains how the different heresies and conflicts to the faith throughout history were combatted by this focus on love.
The reader ought to prepare for reading this encyclical by reviewing the dangers of Jansenism – a judgmental and cold rejection of popular piety – and recognize how love of the Sacred Heart gave us saints of action in the world like Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul, Charles de Foucauld, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Saints of the cloister such as Margaret Mary de Alacoque, Therese of Lisieux, Catherine of Siena, and Faustina Kowalska were united with these great works of love in the world by their vision that Christ’s love embraces all. The pope writes how these and others have enlarged the legacy of the Sacred Heart.
Pope Francis writes that attachment to this great devotion makes possible the apostolic mission he previously described in his other encyclicals. The love of Jesus knows no bounds, but it is bound up with the teaching of Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, if we are to receive the love of Christ, we must first love our world and our fellow man, because He loved the world and our fellow man, first. But in order to rediscover our love for our fellow man and our God, we must rediscover our heart. In our modern age, we have become so enslaved by social media trends and the latest TikTok fads that we have lost touch of our humanity. We live in a world so dominated by technology that we have lost connection with ourselves and our hearts. In a fast-paced world of IPhone apps and computer screens “.. the men and women of our time often find themselves confused and torn apart, almost bereft of an inner principle that can create unity and harmony in their lives and actions. Models of behaviour that, sadly, are now widespread exaggerate our rational-technological dimension or, on the contrary, that of our instincts”.[9]
To rediscover ourselves we must rediscover the heart because, as the pope writes, “The heart is also the locus of sincerity, where deceit and disguise have no place. It usually indicates our true intentions, what we really think, believe and desire, the “secrets” that we tell no one: in a word, the naked truth about ourselves. It is the part of us that is neither appearance or illusion, but is instead authentic, real, entirely “who we are”[5].
Pope Francis calls us as individuals to repentance by identifying ourselves with the sufferings of Christ and allowing our priorities to be reordered on that account by what St. Ignatius described as “affectus.” If we do this properly, he writes, we will be drawn into the community of the Church since we quickly realize that individual action alone will not suffice. The sacrifice Christ made for all demands that we participate in our own times. Asking Jesus for forgiveness for our personal sins leads us to be willing to suffer pain in striving to bring others away from sin. This is reparation for sin in society, defined by St. John Paul II as “apostolic cooperation in the salvation of the world” [206].
We live in a world where social justice has too frequently been replaced by transactional selfishness and the public awareness of self and the plight of others in the world are distorted by manufactured algorithms. Dilexit Nos is an encyclical that calls us to rediscover our Catholic identity in a rejuvenated devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It might be long, but only slightly longer than Heminway’s short novel, The Old Man and the Sea, and it is well worth the read. The full text is here:
The full summary of ‘Dilexit Nos’ by Michael Sullivan is below. (Do not substitute reading this for reading the entire ‘Dilexit Nos’ )
Laudato si’, subtitled “on care for our common home”, was the second encyclical of Pope Francis’, in the third year of his papacy, in which, he criticizes consumerism and irresponsible economic development and calls on all the people of the world to work against the degradation of the environment. Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers) was written in October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the failure of the world to work in global cooperation when faced with the novel virus. It was signed during Pope Francis’ visit to the tomb of Francis of Assisi, and published on Saint Francis’s feast day, October 3rd. Both encyclicals were met with mixed reviews and have been the spark of much controversy over the political nature that was read into their contents.
The era of Pope Francis has been nothing if not controversial.
Pope Francis has had many fans and many detractors during his papacy, but with regards to Dilexit Nos, there is no controversy. It has been met with only high acclaim, even by some of the Pope’s biggest critics. People already claim this encyclical to be Pope Francis’ crowning achievement.
Dilexit Nos might very well be regarded as the magnus opus of the Francis papacy. It is the theological defense of not only, Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, but of his entire 13 years of social justice teaching as Pope. He begins Dilexit Nos by quoting Saint Paul: 1. “HE LOVED US”, Saint Paul says of Christ (cf. Rom 8:37), in order to make us realize that nothing can ever “separate us” from that love (Rom 8:39). Paul could say this with certainty because Jesus himself had told his disciples, “I have loved you” (Jn 15:9, 12). Even now, the Lord says to us, “I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). His open heart has gone before us and waits for us, unconditionally, asking only to offer us his love and friendship. For “he loved us first” (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). Because of Jesus, “we have come to know and believe in the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16).
The love of Jesus knows no bounds, but it is bound up with the teaching of Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, if we are to receive the love of Christ, we must first love our world and our fellow man, because He loved the world and our fellow man, first. But in order to rediscover our love for our fellow man and our God, we must rediscover our heart. The pope explains that “2 living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.”
In our modern age, we have become so enslaved by social media trends and the latest TikTok fads that we have lost touch of our humanity. We live in a world dominated by technology that we have lost connection with ourselves and our hearts. In a fast-paced world of IPhone apps and computer screens “9 the men and women of our time often find themselves confused and torn apart, almost bereft of an inner principle that can create unity and harmony in their lives and actions. Models of behaviour that, sadly, are now widespread exaggerate our rational-technological dimension or, on the contrary, that of our instincts”. No room is left for the heart.”
To rediscover ourselves we must rediscover the heart because “5 The heart is also the locus of sincerity, where deceit and disguise have no place. It usually indicates our true intentions, what we really think, believe and desire, the “secrets” that we tell no one: in a word, the naked truth about ourselves. It is the part of us that is neither appearance or illusion, but is instead authentic, real, entirely “who we are”.”
The only way, however, for us to truly understand our own hearts is to understand the Sacred Heart of Christ. “27 Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice.” We also must learn how to practice that love in our world. “35 This becomes clear when we see Jesus at work. He seeks people out, approaches them, ever open to an encounter with them.”
But, if we lose sight of the love of Christ then 59” hatred, indifference, and selfishness can also reign in our hearts. Yet we cannot attain our fulfilment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others, only through love do we become fully ourselves.”
Pope Francis then reminds us of the theological roots of the Church’s dedication to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Church Father, Augustine and Church Doctors, Bernard and Bonaventure. Saint Augustine, “opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord. For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments, but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love. 103.” Saint Bernard then “takes up the symbolism of the pierced side of the Lord and understands it explicitly as a revelation and outpouring of all of the love of his heart. 104”. And Saint Bonaventure “who unites these two spiritual currents. He presents the heart of Christ as the source of the sacraments and of grace, and urges that our contemplation of that heart become a relationship between friends, a personal encounter of love.106”
Pope Francis offers dedication to the Sacred Heart of Christ as a remedy to the spiritual ailment of our age. He goes onto relate the importance of Saint Francis De Sales’ contemplation of Christ’s open heart to our own modern times. De Sales writes of the personal relationship that each of us can have by putting our complete trust in the grace of Jesus Christ and the Church. By abandoning ourselves to Christ’s Sacred Heart we can “dwell forever in the Lord’s wounded side, for apart from him not only can we do nothing, but even if we were able, we would lack the desire to do anything”. Francis De Sales is given credit for the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus when he took as an emblem “a single heart pierced by two arrows, the whole enclosed in a crown of thorns.118” at the start of the 17th century.
Later that same century “Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque reported a remarkable series of apparitions of Christ between the end of December 1673 and June of 1675. 119” in which, according to her account, Jesus revealed to her “the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart. 120”. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s visions were not recognized at first and it was not until Saint Claude de la Colombiere undertook her defense that word began to spread about the apparitions.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ continued throughout the 18th, and would be eventually reshaped by Saint Charles de Foucauld and Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in the 19th century. Both Foucauld and Therese of the Child Jesus were influenced by the great renewal of devotion that was sweeping throughout France in the 1800s. “When Therese was fifteen, she could speak of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own”134. But, Pope Francis believes that a letter written just three months before her death might be the most important text for understanding the devotion of Therese to the heart of Christ. The letter reads in part : “When I see Mary Magdalene walking up before the many guests, washing with her tears the feet of her adored Master, whom she is touching for the first time, I feel that her heart has understood the abysses of love and mercy of the heart of Jesus, and, sinner though she is, this heart of love was disposed not only to pardon her but to lavish on her the blessings of his divine intimacy, to lift her to the highest summits of contemplation. Ah! dear little Brother, ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more”.
Pope Francis concludes his history of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the ‘Resonances Within the Society of Jesus’. Being the first Jesuit Pope, he felt called to mention the place of the Sacred Heart in the history of the Society of Jesus. He recounts their founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, words and how Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises ultimately culminates in the “Contemplation to Attain Love” which “gives rise to thanksgiving and the offering of one’s “memory, understanding and will” to the heart which is the fount and origin of every good thing. 145”
After recounting the various testimonies of Saints of the Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the pope calls us to “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. There is no greater way for us to return love for love. 167”. By placing the love of Christ at the center of our lives we can begin to repay that love with love for our fellow man and woman because “this bond between devotion to the heart of Jesus and commitment to our brothers and sisters has been a constant in the history of Christian spirituality. 172”
From Church Fathers like Origen and Saint Ambrose, to Saints like Vincent De Paul, Francis de Sales, and Charles de Foucauld have all recognized that the love of Christ must be allowed to change our own heart. Only by returning “Love for Love” can we truly live out of call as Christians. “Saint John Paul explained that by entrusting ourselves together to the heart of Christ, “over the ruins accumulated by hatred and violence, the greatly desired civilization of love, the Kingdom of the heart of Christ, can be built”.182”
Saint Pope John Paul II also reminded us that it is sin that has caused the wounds in the Christ. “All sin harms the Church and society; as a result, “every sin can undoubtedly be considered as a social sin” and this is especially true for those sins that “by their very matter constitute a direct attack on one’s neighbour”182.” We must mend the wounds of sins by mending our wounded hearts through a spirit of reparation “that leads us to hope that every wound can be healed, however deep it may be. Complete reparation may at times seem impossible, such as when goods or loved ones are definitively lost, or when certain situations have become irremediable. Yet the intention to make amends, and to do so in a concrete way, is essential for the process of reconciliation and a return to peace of heart”186.
A spirit of reparations must overcome our hearts to help heal the wounds that sin that have torn apart our world. Our sin and the sin of the world is the barrier preventing the love of Christ from consuming the entire world. Pope Francis proposes that we “offer the heart of Christ a new possibility of spreading in this world the flames of his ardent and gracious love. 200” by means of reparation for sin with acts of love for our neighbor. “The sacrifices and sufferings required by these acts of love of neighbour unite us to the passion of Christ.201”
When we sacrifice for our neighbor, like Christ sacrificed for us, we will be able to spread the Christian message. Because “The Christian message is attractive when experienced and expressed in its totality: not simply as a refuge for pious thoughts or an occasion for impressive ceremonies. What kind of worship would we give to Christ if we were to rest content with an individual relationship with him and show no interest in relieving the sufferings of others or helping them to live a better life? Would it please the heart that so loved us, if we were to bask in a private religious experience while ignoring its implications for the society in which we live?205”
To truly convey the Christian message of love requires someone “who are themselves in love and who, enthralled by Christ, feel bound to share this love that has changed their lives.209” The lover of Christ “will be able to speak of Christ, by witness or by word, in such a way that others seek to love him.210” Pope Francis exhorts us to become a missionary disciples, like the Apostles and first disciples, by experiencing a personal relationship with Christ by reflecting his love into our world. “If you accept the challenge, he will enlighten you, accompany you and strengthen you, and you will have an enriching experience that will bring you much happiness. It is not important whether you see immediate results; leave that to the Lord who works in the secret of our hearts. Keep experiencing the joy born of our efforts to share the love of Christ with others. 216”