Pontiff’s writing on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 'Dilexit nos,' invites the faithful to better understand God’s immersive love
DETROIT — In devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Catholics acknowledge and worship the essence of who God truly is: eternal love.
That is what the faithful should take away from Pope Francis’ newest encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “'Dilexit nos' ('He loved us'): On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
On Oct. 24, Pope Francis released the fourth encyclical of his pontificate, following Lumen fidei in 2013, Laudato si’ in 2015 and Fratelli tutti in 2020.
Robert Fastiggi, Ph.D., the Bishop Kevin Britt Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, said all four encyclicals share a common theme of how much God loves us and wants us to be united in him through the Passion of Jesus Christ.
“I think this encyclical helps us appreciate more what motivates our Holy Father: a deep love of Christ and Christ crucified,” Fastiggi told Detroit Catholic. “He unites so much in this encyclical Eucharistic adoration, love of neighbor and our understanding of Christ’s immense love for us, revealed by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and his pierced side. His wounded heart that shed blood and water for us poured out of his heart.”
Fastiggi was particularly drawn to how Pope Francis incorporated past papal encyclicals and the writing of saints on devotion to the Sacred Heart in Dilexit nos, starting with medieval writers such as St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Julian of Norwich, leading up to Jesuits such as St. Claude La Colombiere and Fr. Pieter Jan Beckx, SJ, who consecrated the Society of Jesus to the Sacred Heart, and of course, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French mystic to whom Jesus revealed his Sacred Heart from 1673-75.
“Pope Francis went through history showing how so many of these great theologians emphasized the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Fastiggi said. “The Holy Father showed himself a true Jesuit, tying all these saints and past writings of others and his own together. If we study previous efforts during his pontificate, we know there was the Year of Mercy in 2015-16, and he stressed mercy, referring to the Divine Mercy and St. Faustina, which harmonizes with the devotion to the Sacred Heart.”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread worldwide after being revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. In the Church, Masses on the first Friday of the month are celebrated in commemoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in many Catholic homes, it is common to see people with images of Jesus showing his Sacred Heart, usually with Christ standing next to the Blessed Virgin Mary, showing her Immaculate Heart.
While it is great to have such images at home, they must invite the faithful to a deeper sense of worship of the Sacred Heart, particularly in the direction of the incarnational nature of Jesus, Fastiggi said.
“The devotion to the Sacred Heart is the worship of Christ," Fastiggi said. "Pope Francis points out that we cannot separate devotion to his heart from the worship of his divine-human person: that he is God and he is man.”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — when presented along with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary — adds to the concrete nature of Jesus’ humanity, Fastiggi said. In the encyclical, Pope Francis stresses that devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary does not detract from devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Rather, Jesus’ and Mary’s hearts are united by a bond of love so that they mystically become one heart.
“Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us Jesus was human. He had a human heart,” Fastiggi said. “This shows Christ’s intimate love for human beings, that he would humble himself to show his humanity. So, when we worship, we can worship the Sacred Heart. This is something Pope Francis stresses and what other documents in the Church have stressed: We can worship the Sacred Heart as worship through God alone because you cannot separate the heart from the Divine Person. We worship Jesus with one act of worship, including his human and divine nature.”
David Tay, the director of the Men of the Sacred Hearts, a lay group of men who enthrone homes in the area to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, welcomed Pope Francis’ newest encyclical as an opportunity to learn more about the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
The Men of the Sacred Hearts enthrone homes in the manner of the group’s founder, Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC., a Peruvian priest who began spreading to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the early 20th century.
“We hope this encyclical gets more people excited about a devotion to the Sacred Heart, and that they’d prayerfully consider enthroning their homes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Tay said.
In the encyclical, Pope Francis delves into mystical theology, but presents it in such a manner that one does not need to be a theologian to understand how devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a call to transform one’s own heart to the heart of Christ, particularly through acts of reparation, Fastiggi said.
“Pope Francis talks about consoling the heart of Jesus by doing acts of reparation for the offenses to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and compunction for our sins and how sorrow for our sins has to be motivated by our great love of Christ,” Fastiggi said.
Through experiencing this reparation, appealing to God for forgiveness of sins committed against the Sacred Heart of Christ, Fastiggi said Pope Francis affirms that the faithful are participants in the salvation of Christ, the sole redeemer, along with Mary as co-redemptrix.
Pope Francis announced he would release an encyclical on the Sacred Heart earlier this year in June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and in honor of the 350th anniversary of Christ's appearance to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
More locally, faculty at Sacred Heart Major Seminary say Pope Francis’s writing on the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been a great blessing to the Church — and particularly the seminary.
Fr. Charles Fox, vice rector and dean of seminarian formation at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, said the pope's encyclical, along with prior writing about devotion to the Sacred Heart, guides the institution in its work in forming the next group of priests, permanent deacons and lay leaders in the Church.
“Sacred Heart’s cornerstone bears an inscription from Jeremiah 3:15, ‘I will give you pastors according to my own heart,’” Fr. Fox said. “Our seminary’s mission is to help priests, as well as deacons and lay ecclesial ministers, know the love of Christ for them and to share love with a world that is starving for true and lasting love.
“Every day, I see our seminarians drawing close to Christ’s Sacred Heart, at Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours, during holy hours of Eucharistic adoration, in their studies and community life, and in apostolic ministry outside the seminary,” Fr. Fox added. “Our men encounter Christ every day and grow in their friendship with him and their love for his people.”
Fastiggi encourages the faithful to read the 28,000-word text of Dilexit nos for themselves to fully appreciate what the Holy Father wants to teach about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting that for all its theological insights, the text makes itself available to the lay reader.
But if he had to synthesize Pope Francis’ message to the universal Church, it comes down to this: That God is infinite love.
“What people can take away from this work is there needs to be a great sense for the immense love God has shown us through Christ,” Fastiggi said. “That God loves us, and He reveals this love to the utmost, and our response to this love is we need to become more loving ourselves by trying to take on the heart of Christ in what we do. And when we do that, we realize God’s love to others, and God’s love for ourselves.”
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