The new Sacred Heart encyclical: Encouraging!

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Oct 25, 2024

When I say that Pope Francis’ encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is encouraging, I mean just what the word “encourage” means, which comes from the French world encoragier which means precisely “to hearten”, in the sense of “to make strong”. That is is one reason that the devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are so effective in making us strong in Faith, and in action for Christ.

Pope Francis’ new encyclical is a major effort to gather together the many threads of devotion to the heart of Our Lord as it has developed down through history, and as it deserves to be renewed and deepened in our time. The encyclical is available in our library as well as on the Vatican website, of course. My purpose here will be to highlight some of the best passages, and to guide you through the structure of the encyclical.

Papal encyclicals are generally indexed by numbers in the text which designate either a small group of paragraphs or, in this case, each individual paragraph. As I go through the structure, I will quote portions of the text that I thought were particularly memorable:

The first chapter is devoted to “The Importance of the Heart”. It concentrates on what we mean by the word “heart”, and how it indicates the deepest core of our being.

From the section entitled “The Importance of the Heart”:

8. Instead of running after superficial satisfactions and playing a role for the benefit of others, we would do better to think about the really important questions in life. Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I want to look back on my life once it ends? What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? All these questions lead us back to the heart.

From the section entitled “The Heart Unites the Fragments”:

18. We see, then, that in the heart of each person there is a mysterious connection between self-knowledge and openness to others, between the encounter with one’s personal uniqueness and the willingness to give oneself to others. We become ourselves only to the extent that we acquire the ability to acknowledge others, while only those who can acknowledge and accept themselves are then able to encounter others.

21. This profound core, present in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity. 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, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved.

From the section entitled “Fire”:

26. …Along the same lines, Saint John Henry Newman took as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart. This realization led him, the distinguished intellectual, to recognize that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not from his reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive and present. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace….

The second chapter of the encyclical is entitled “Actions and Words of Love”, as known through Jesus Christ:

From the section entitled “Actions that reflect the heart”:

36. Whenever Jesus healed someone, he preferred to do it, not from a distance but in close proximity: “He stretched out his hand and touched him” ( Mt 8:3). “He touched her hand” ( Mt 8:15). “He touched their eyes” ( Mt 9:29). Once he even stopped to cure a deaf man with his own saliva (cf. Mk 7:33), as a mother would do, so that people would not think of him as removed from their lives. “The Lord knows the fine science of the caress. In his compassion, God does not love us with words; he comes forth to meet us and, by his closeness, he shows us the depth of his tender love”.

36. Whenever Jesus healed someone, he preferred to do it, not from a distance but in close proximity: “He stretched out his hand and touched him” ( Mt 8:3). “He touched her hand” ( Mt 8:15). “He touched their eyes” ( Mt 9:29). Once he even stopped to cure a deaf man with his own saliva (cf. Mk 7:33), as a mother would do, so that people would not think of him as removed from their lives. “The Lord knows the fine science of the caress. In his compassion, God does not love us with words; he comes forth to meet us and, by his closeness, he shows us the depth of his tender love”.

The third chapter is entitled “This is the Heart that has Loved so Greatly”. It explores the worship of Christ and the tangible nature of Divine love and of the human love underpinning the devotion to Our Lord’s Sacred Heart.

From the section entitled “This is the heart that has loved so greatly”:

48. Devotion to the heart of Christ is not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus. What we contemplate and adore is the whole Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, represented by an image that accentuates his heart. That heart of flesh is seen as the privileged sign of the inmost being of the incarnate Son and his love, both divine and human. More than any other part of his body, the heart of Jesus is “the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love”.

From the section entitled “Venerating His Image”:

54. It is understandable, then, that the Church has chosen the image of the heart to represent the human and divine love of Jesus Christ and the inmost core of his Person. Yet, while the depiction of a heart afire may be an eloquent symbol of the burning love of Jesus Christ, it is important that this heart not be represented apart from him. In this way, his summons to a personal relationship of encounter and dialogue will become all the more meaningful.33 The venerable image portraying Christ holding out his loving heart also shows him looking directly at us, inviting us to encounter, dialogue and trust; it shows his strong hands capable of supporting us and his lips that speak personally to each of us.

57. Certain of these representations may indeed strike us as tasteless and not particularly conducive to affection or prayer. Yet this is of little importance, since they are only invitations to prayer, and, to cite an Eastern proverb, we should not limit our gaze to the finger that points us to the moon. Whereas the Eucharist is a real presence to be worshiped, sacred images, albeit blessed, point beyond themselves, inviting us to lift up our hearts and to unite them to the heart of the living Christ. The image we venerate thus serves as a summons to make room for an encounter with Christ, and to worship him in whatever way we wish to picture him. Standing before the image, we stand before Christ, and in his presence, “love pauses, contemplates mystery, and enjoys it in silence”.

From the section entitled “A love that is tangible”:

61. Since the heart continues to be seen in the popular mind as the affective centre of each human being, it remains the best means of signifying the divine love of Christ, united forever and inseparably to his wholly human love. Pius XII observed that the Gospel, in referring to the love of Christ’s heart, speaks “not only of divine charity but also human affection”. Indeed, “the heart of Jesus Christ, hypostatically united to the divine Person of the Word, beyond doubt throbbed with love and every other tender affection”.

From the section entitled “A threefold love”:

65. The image of the Lord’s heart speaks to us in fact of a threefold love. First, we contemplate his infinite divine love. Then our thoughts turn to the spiritual dimension of his humanity, in which the heart is “the symbol of that most ardent love which, infused into his soul, enriches his human will”. Finally, “it is a symbol also of his sensible love”.

66. These three loves are not separate, parallel or disconnected, but together act and find expression in a constant and vital unity. For “by faith, through which we believe that the human and divine nature were united in the Person of Christ, we can see the closest bonds between the tender love of the physical heart of Jesus and the twofold spiritual love, namely human and divine”.

From the section entitled “Further reflections and relevance for our times”:

83. Devotion to Christ’s heart is essential for our Christian life to the extent that it expresses our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love. In this sense, we can once more affirm that the Sacred Heart is a synthesis of the Gospel.

The fourth chapter, entitled “A love that gives itself as drink”, devotes itself primarily to the historical development of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, especially as exemplified in the lives of saints and religious communities. This very rich section covers the influence of St. Augustine, St Bernard, William of Saint-Thierry, St. Bonaventure, St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde, the Carthusians, St. John Eudes, St. Francis de Sales, and of course St. Margaret Mary, St. Claude de la Colombière, St. Charles de Foucauld, and St. Thérèrese of the Child Jesus, along with “Resonances within the Society of Jesus”. The chapter describes the devotion as a broad current of the interior life emphasizing the consolation of Jesus on the Cross, compunction (a healthy sorrow for sin), and “reasons of the heart”, from which sub-section I have drawn the following passage:

155. We may also question how we can pray to the Lord of life, risen from the dead and reigning in glory, while at the same time comforting him in the midst of his sufferings. Here we need to realize that his risen heart preserves its wound as a constant memory, and that the working of grace makes possible an experience that is not restricted to a single moment of the past. In pondering this, we find ourselves invited to take a mystical path that transcends our mental limitations yet remains firmly grounded in the word of God.

Chapter 5, entitled “Love for Love”, rounds out the presentation with a consideration of “Echoes in the History of Spirituality”, which touches on the contributions of St. Ambrose, St. Bernard, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Charles de Foucauld. It explores the social significance of reparation to the heart of Christ in the writings of St. John Paul II and considers reparation as an extension of the Heart of Christ. I have drawn two passages from the sections entitled “Reparation: An extension of the Heart of Christ” and “Bringing Love to the world”:

203. In what we have said, it is important to note several inseparable aspects. Acts of love of neighbour, with the renunciation, self-denial, suffering and effort that they entail, can only be such when they are nourished by Christ’s own love. He enables us to love as he loved, and in this way he loves and serves others through us. He humbles himself to show his love through our actions, yet even in our slightest works of mercy, his heart is glorified and displays all its grandeur. Once our hearts welcome the love of Christ in complete trust, and enable its fire to spread in our lives, we become capable of loving others as Christ did, in humility and closeness to all. In this way, Christ satisfies his thirst and gloriously spreads the flames of his ardent and gracious love in us and through us. How can we fail to see the magnificent harmony present in all this?

215. Jesus is calling you and sending you forth to spread goodness in our world. His call is one of service, a summons to do good, perhaps as a physician, a mother, a teacher or a priest. Wherever you may be, you can hear his call and realize that he is sending you forth to carry out that mission. He himself told us, “I am sending you out” (Lk 10:3). It is part of our being friends with him.

My own conclusion is that this encyclical is well worth reading by just about every adult Catholic, no matter how young or how old. Though fairly lengthy, the essential human simplicity of this devotion that encompasses so much richness makes the encyclical easy to skim over quickly, slowing down for whatever aspects the reader finds particularly fresh, interesting or helpful. In this way, the reader can also derive immense benefit from renewed acquaintance with the many saints who have been central to the development of the devotion. The encyclical is not difficult to read, but neither does it minimize the need to take the devotion seriously. Rather, it provides the understanding and, yes, encouragement that can help us all to unite our hearts with the Heart of Christ.