“What we contemplate and adore is the whole Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, represented by an image that accentuates his heart,” Pope Francis explains in paragraph 48 of his encyclical, “Dilexit Nos,” promulgated in October.
The new encyclical, whose name means “He Loved Us,” is a sustained meditation on the love of God incarnate. The image the Holy Father uses is the ancient symbol of the human heart, which stands for what is most human in us and what is most like God.
Throughout “Dilexit Nos,” Pope Francis draws on the words and example of saints and spiritual writers who were known for their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“The venerable image portraying Christ holding out his loving heart also shows him looking directly at us, inviting us to encounter, dialogue and trust,” the pope teaches. This image of the Sacred Heart also “shows his strong hands capable of supporting us and his lips that speak personally to each of us,” he writes in paragraph 54.
Human persons are made in the image and likeness of God, who is Love. It’s only right that the deepest, most powerful image of God is one that shows how our hardened hearts are transformed by the holy heart of God’s Son.
“The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfill God’s plan only if we learn to love,” Pope Francis teaches in paragraph 59. “And the heart is the symbol of that love.”
The mystery of the Incarnation unites divinity and humanity in powerful ways.
“In gazing upon the Lord’s heart,” Pope Francis says in paragraph 60, “we contemplate a physical reality, his human flesh, which enables him to possess genuine human emotions and feelings, like ourselves, albeit fully transformed by his divine love.”
The emotions expressed by Jesus are human but not distorted by sin. His ego never interferes with his feelings or his actions. Christ assumed all that is part of our human nature, so everything about us (mind, heart, and body) might be sanctified, the pope explains in paragraph 62.
The image of the Sacred Heart means far more than a pious devotion. It is a way of seeing what is most important in ourselves as people made in God’s image.
In Jesus, we see the face of God, and in his Sacred Heart we connect with God’s incomparable love and mercy. The mystery of who we are, and how we are expected to live, is revealed in the holy heart of Jesus.
“It is precisely in his human love, and not apart from it, that we encounter his divine love: We discover the infinite in the finite,” says paragraph 67.
During this holy time of year, we are blessed with the sights, sounds and symbols of God’s love poured out for us in the gift of the Father’s only Son given to us at Christmas. God loves us and we see this love most intimately expressed in the child Jesus lying in a manger.
A blessed Christmas to all!
Dan Conway, a member of Holy Trinity Church, is a writer, consultant and stewardship educator.
