October 24, 2024

Pope Francis has released a new encyclical on the human and divine love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a devotion that is central to the spirituality of Regnum Christi.

The Holy Father had announced the preparation of the encyclical, entitled “He Loved Us,” on June 5th, 2024, in his General Audience, explaining why he felt it was important.

“December 27 of last year marked the 350th anniversary of the first manifestation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. That occasion marked the beginning of a period of celebrations that will end on 27 June next year. This is why I am pleased to prepare a document that brings together the precious reflections of previous Magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the Sacred Scriptures, in order to re-propose today, to the whole Church, this devotion imbued with spiritual beauty. I believe it will do us great good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”

According to the Vatican News Agency, in the new encyclical  Pope Francis “proposes a new reflection on the love of Christ represented in His Holy Heart. He calls for a renewal of ‘authentic devotion’ to the Sacred Heart, recalling that in the Heart of Christ ‘we find the whole Gospel’ (89). It is in His Heart that ‘we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn to love'” (30).

The Encyclical has five chapters, focused on the importance of the human heart, actions and words of love, [Jesus’] Heart that has loved so greatly, a love that gives itself as drink, and love that responds to love. It explores the deep love and devotion to the Sacred Heart that has been promoted through the centuries by a litany of saints including St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, St. Claude de La Colombière and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Therese of Liseux, St. John Henry Newman, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Faustina Kowalska, Pope St. John Paul II, and others.

In reflecting on the love of the Sacred Heart, human and divine, the Holy Father explores Jesus’ tenderness as shown in the Gospels, speaking of the gaze of Christ which sees into the depths of who we are and loves us, and how he expressed that love most eloquently in his crucifixion and death. In fact, he states that the heart of Christ is the “the incarnate synthesis of the Gospel. (90)”

In a call to mission, Pope Francis explains how devotion to the Sacred Heart “leads us to the Father and sends us forth to our brothers and sisters (163). Indeed, love for one’s brothers and sisters is the greatest gesture we can offer Him ‘to return love for love’” (166).  

As we contemplate the Sacred Heart, mission becomes a matter of love. For the greatest danger in mission is that, amid all the things we say and do, we fail to bring about a joyful encounter with the love of Christ who embraces us and saves us.  Mission, as a radiation of the love of the heart of Christ, requires missionaries who are themselves in love and who, enthralled by Christ, feel bound to share this love that has changed their lives. (209)

The Holy Father concludes the encyclical with a prayer,

“I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that His Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world. Until that day when we will rejoice in celebrating together the banquet of the heavenly kingdom in the presence of the risen Lord, who harmonizes all our differences in the light that radiates perpetually from his open heart. May he be blessed forever.”

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