Dilexit Nos
Elia Carrai - Dilexit nos (Rom 8:37), "he has loved us": echoing the words with which St. Paul speaks of the irrevocability of Christ's love, Pope Francis opens his fourth encyclical "on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ." Published on the 350th anniversary of the manifestation of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, this document not only retraces the long tradition of devotion to the Heart of Jesus but also expands its horizons. It traces this love for the Heart of Christ back, on the one hand, to the Paschal sacrifice and his pierced side on the Cross, and on the other hand, reveals its full significance and relevance for our present time.
"World society," the Pope says, "is losing its heart" (22); the growing inability to prevent conflicts and the violence of their escalation, along with the indifference or tolerance of other countries, is a clear sign of this. In this "liquid society" of ours (10), where many of the old certainties seem uncertain, and where "an unhealthy individualism" prevails (10), Pope Francis surprises us by asserting the urgent need to rediscover "the importance of the heart" (2-31).
Through the Bible, and even as far back as Homer and Plato, the encyclical shows how, from time immemorial, humanity has identified in the heart "a unifying center that gives meaning and orientation to all that a person experiences" (3, 55), "a universal human experience" (53).
Indeed, no matter how much "foliage" may cover our hearts, no matter how much we may try to deceive ourselves, "nothing of value can be built without the heart" (6); it remains indispensable: "If the heart is devalued, then what it means to speak from the heart, to act with the heart, to mature and heal the heart is also devalued" (11).
Here, too, the Pope surprises us: it is not primarily through new rules or reminders that we can care for our hearts, but first and foremost, as he says, by allowing "the questions that matter to emerge: who am I really? What am I looking for? [...] What meaning do I want everything I live to have? Who do I want to be before others? Who am I before God? These questions lead me to my heart" (8). Those who, like Pope Francis, look with respect at these questions that, in various ways and forms, dwell in every man and woman of our time, feel the urgency to "speak again of the heart; to aim there, where every person, of every category and condition, makes his or her synthesis; where concrete persons have the source and root of all their other strengths, convictions, passions, and choices" (9).
A heart that takes itself seriously in its own questions is, in fact, a heart that also discovers it "is wounded," that it is not "self-sufficient," and its "ontological dignity" is manifested precisely in the fact "that it must seek a more dignified life" (30). Within it vibrates the urgency for a greater and more beautiful, truly fulfilled life. In the encyclical, Pope Francis shows us that it is God Himself who ultimately "aims" at the heart of man because "to hear and taste the Lord and to honor Him is a thing of the heart" (27).
Referring to the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we are all familiar with, Pope Francis reminds us that it is part of a body (48-51), a real historical humanity in which God Himself became man’s companion in gestures and words that "reveal his heart" (47). It is precisely in Christ’s gaze, Pope Francis tells us (39-42), that shines “all his attention to people, to their concerns, to their sufferings” (40), because “beyond all dialectic, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart” (26).
It is by being touched by the love of this gaze that the desire is awakened in men to become more and more united with the very heart of Christ, to whom "all the desires and aspirations of his human heart were directed towards the Father" (72), revealing the true greatness and authentic longing of our own hearts: "to have the same mind as Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).
It is the fascination with this Heart of Christ, passionate about the heart of man, that moved and transformed the lives of so many saints whom Pope Francis points to as an unbroken chain of witnesses, in whom the reality and beauty of Christ's love have been manifested: Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, St. Francis de Sales, St. Margaret, all the way to St. Charles de Foucauld and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. These are the true missionaries, who did not intend "to waste time discussing secondary matters or imposing truths and rules, because their main concern is to communicate what they live and, above all, that others may perceive the goodness and beauty of the Beloved through their humble efforts" (209).
And it is precisely through the saints that we discover again and again that, even today, the heart of Christ "is open before us and waits for us unconditionally, without demanding any prior requirements in order to love us and to offer us his friendship" (1). It is this concrete, carnal love, expressed so effectively by the image of the inflamed heart, that constitutes the only force of novelty within history; from it springs true communion and the desire for genuine justice, beyond any form of individualism or attempts at the "social promotion" of Christianity. "When Christ said, 'Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart' (Mt. 11:29), he indicated to us that 'in order to express himself, he needs our littleness, our humility’" (202).
Against any resurgence of Jansenism (80-87), so prone to ultimate disenchantment with humanity, and despite “moralistic minds, which claim to control mercy and grace” (137), Pope Francis, in these times of great indifference and war, reaffirms the true greatness of Christ’s heart by underscoring the absolute value of man’s heart—the profound and synthetic point at which God "aims" to draw him into His heart, to share His life. It is hard to imagine a more decisive call in these uncertain times of war. We can read with gratitude these dense pages from Pope Francis, who reminds every person that "the true personal adventure is one that is built from the heart. At the end of life, only this will count" (11).
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