The Sacred Heart of Jesus: ‘He has loved us’

A reflection from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., on the new encyclical by His Holiness Pope Francis

It has been 68 years since the publication of a papal encyclical devoted exclusively to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Pius XII, encyclical Haurietis Aquas, “You will draw waters,” May 15, 1956.) In it, Pope Pius XII encouraged devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, urging Catholics to reflect upon the mystery of God and his love so as to be transformed by it.

The encyclical can be read HERE.

Since the late 17^th century, devotion to the Sacred Heart, has been drawn from the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a French Visitation nun and mystic to whom our Lord revealed his wish to be honored through the symbol of a heart, his own “pierced heart.”

Pope Pius XII wrote that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

… rests on that principle whereby we recognize that His Heart, the noblest part of human nature, is hypostatically united to the Person of the Divine Word. Consequently, there must be paid to it that worship of adoration with which the Church honors the Person of the Incarnate Son of God Himself (21).

… The other reason… arises from the fact that His Heart, more than all the other members of His body, is the natural sign and symbol of His boundless love for the human race. “There is in the Sacred Heart,” as our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, pointed out, “the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return (22).

Anticipating the Solemn Feast of the Sacred Heart this past May, Pope Francis announced his intention to write a new encyclical in the Fall, observing,

I believe it will do us much good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, which says something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart (Pope Francis, General Audience, May 22, 2024).

He also used the audience to encourage believers throughout the world to pray for peace.

On October 24, 2024, to honor the 350^th Anniversary of the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Pope Francis released his promised encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Dilexit Nos” (‘He has loved us’), writing,

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 (2).

Throughout the text, the Holy Father uses words and imagery from sacred scripture, great theologians and saints, as well as writings from philosophers, poets and other great minds of the ages to develop and explain his understanding of the symbolism of the human heart and why it is important as an appropriate image for consideration of the Divine Heart of Christ. He writes:

Whenever a person thinks, questions and reflects on his or her true identity, strives to understand the deeper questions of life and to seek God, or experiences the thrill of catching a glimpse of truth, it leads to the realization that our fulfilment as human beings is found in love. In loving, we sense that we come to know the purpose and goal of our existence in this world. Everything comes together in a state of coherence and harmony. It follows that, in contemplating the meaning of our lives, perhaps the most decisive question we can ask is, “Do I have a heart?” (23).

The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs (32).

Love and the human heart do not always go together, since hatred, indifference and selfishness can also reign in our hearts. Yet we cannot attain our fulfillment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others; only through love do we become fully ourselves. The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfill God’s plan only if we learn to love. And the heart is the symbol of that love (59).

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. We need to remember that the visions or mystical showings related by certain saints who passionately encouraged devotion to Christ’s heart are not something that the faithful are obliged to believe as if they were the word of God. Nonetheless, they are rich sources of encouragement and can prove greatly beneficial, even if no one need feel forced to follow them should they not prove helpful on his or her own spiritual journey (83).

This powerful realization of the love of Jesus Christ bequeathed to us by St. Margaret Mary (Alacoque) can spur us to greater union with him. We need not feel obliged to accept or appropriate every detail of her spiritual experience, in which, as often happens, God’s intervention combines with human elements related to the individual’s own desires, concerns and interior images. Such experiences must always be interpreted in the light of the Gospel and the rich spiritual tradition of the Church, even as we acknowledge the good they accomplish in many of our brothers and sisters. In this way, we can recognize the gifts of the Holy Spirit present in those experiences of faith and love. More important than any individual detail is the core of the message handed on to us, which can be summed up in the words heard by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “This is the heart that so loved human beings that it has spared nothing, even to emptying and consuming itself in order to show them its love” (121).

Despite its length, the Holy Father’s fourth encyclical is an instructive, impressive and inspiring presentation of the enduring spiritual significance of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in and for the life of the world. Take the time to read it, to study it, to pray over and with it. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is an eternal reminder to us that “in the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved (21).”