Pope Francis' latest Encyclical Dilexit nos, on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, published Oct. 24, 2024 begins by emphasizing the importance of the heart particularly in light of the Bible, where “heart” means the unifying center of the person. The heart is the center of man, his innermost center; it is not only the core of the soul but of the whole person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity.
Every human being was created for love, to love and beloved, but in today's society, mostly consumerist and dominated by an anti-human use of technology, man is in danger of losing his center, the center of himself. As a result, man often finds himself dazed, divided, lacking an inner principle that creates unity and harmony in his being and acting. No room is left for the heart.
Therefore, it is important to return to the heart: it is the heart that unites the fragments of the life lived, realizing the harmony of the whole person, as shown by the example of the Virgin Mary, who saw things with the heart, kept and pondered in her heart what was absolutely unique to her.
Therefore, the heart has an ontological dignity that we must recognize, but this in no way implies an undue reliance on our own abilities. Let us be careful- says the Pope- let us realize that our hearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded. We need the help of God’s love, we need to return to the Heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire. There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love. The Heart of Christ is “ecstasy”, openness, gift and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the unifying principle of reality, since “Christ is the heart of the world, and the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection is the centre of history, which, because of him, is a history of salvation.”
Back in 2016, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of returning to the Heart of Christ, during the Holy Mass he presided in St. Peter's Square at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Priests, as part of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
This celebration of the Jubilee for Priests on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us all to turn to the heart, the deepest root and foundation of every person, the focus of our affective life and, in a word, his or her very core. Today we contemplate two hearts: the Heart of the Good Shepherd and our own heart as priests.
The Heart of the Good Shepherd is not only the Heart that shows us mercy, but is itself mercy. There the Father’s love shines forth; there I know I am welcomed and understood as I am; there, with all my sins and limitations, I know the certainty that I am chosen and loved. Contemplating that heart, I renew my first love: the memory of that time when the Lord touched my soul and called me to follow him, the memory of the joy of having cast the nets of our life upon the sea of his word (cf. Lk 5:5).
Not only for priests but also for all of us, it is important to keep alive the memory of when we felt God's call in our hearts and all the times we felt God close and present in our lives. These are concrete moments, not suggestions; by doing so, we will strengthen in ourselves the awareness that we have always been the object of God's merciful love.
Contemplating the Heart of Christ -Pope Francis continued in his homily- we are faced with the fundamental question of priestly life: Where is my heart directed? The priestly ministry is often full of plans, projects and activities: from catechesis to liturgy, to works of charity, to pastoral and administrative commitments. Amid all these, we must still ask ourselves: What is my heart set on? For as Jesus says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21).
The heart of the priest is a heart pierced by the love of the Lord. For this reason, he no longer looks to himself, but is instead turned towards God and his brothers and sisters. It is no longer “a fluttering heart”, allured by momentary whims, shunning disagreements and seeking petty satisfactions. Rather, it is a heart rooted firmly in the Lord, warmed by the Holy Spirit, open and available to our brothers and sisters.
In Luisa's writings, Jesus reproaches the interest in material things, the ties for economic interests with people and one's own family, the self-esteem of priests who are not faithful to their vocation. All this makes the priestly ministry sterile and produces so much harm to the priest that he forms around himself a muddy iron armor that like a robe envelops him. It is an armor that imprisons and does not allow free movement. And very often very strong images are used to express the decadence of the Church caused by an unfaithful vocation: in a passage of September 6, 1924, the Church is depicted as a beautiful, noble, majestic but battered and forlorn woman, with her limbs all untied, and only at the touch of Jesus do the bones regain their place and that woman is transformed into a beautiful and graceful girl.
In another passage, the Church is represented in the form of a column that is about to crumble, it is wavering without being able to stand stable. Jesus asks Luisa if she wants to offer herself as a victim and be like a prop to support that column. Luisa immediately offers herself and utters her fiat.
Even today the Church stands thanks to these mystical souls who offer their lives for love of God, neighbor and for the glory of the Kingdom. The victim soul enters God and from the center of His Heart takes and distributes graces and blessings on his or her brothers and sisters. Don Benedetto Calvi speaking of Luisa said that she was “our lightning rod.”
In a passage from Vol 2. , May 7, 1899 Jesus states that His Heart is so very large, but the door is extremely narrow. No one can fill the void of this Heart but souls who are detached, naked and simple. In fact, since the door is small, any hindrance, even the slightest – that is, a shadow of attachment, an intention which is not upright, a work done without the purpose of pleasing Jesus – prevents them from entering to delight in His Heart.
Like every Christian, the priest is one who belongs to God and who not only lives for God but in God.
The soul who is truly mine must live not only for God, but in God, because to live in Me has the virtue of giving to the soul the same form as the Divine Person in whom she dwells, and of transforming her into the very divine virtues with which she nourishes herself… In living for God, the soul can be subject to disturbances, to bitternesses, to being inconstant, to feeling the weight of passions, to meddle in earthly things. But the living in God – no, it is completely different, because the most important thing so that a person may enter to dwell inside another person is to lay down all that belongs to him – that is, to strip oneself of everything, to leave one’s own passions; in a word, to leave everything in order to find everything in God. (Vol. 3. excerpts July 9 and 10, 1900)
This call to find every good and every person in God concerns us and involves everyone, no one is excluded, lay or consecrated, and whatever our state of life.
It is in the Heart of Jesus the main source of our joy, the reason for our happiness, because it is in this very heart that the Kingdom of Fiat is present.
My Heart is swollen, It agonizes and sighs because I want to make known the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat, the great goods which are in It, and the great good which those who will possess It will receive. It is precisely in my Heart that I keep It, and I feel my Heart explode for I want to let It out. (Vol. 19 - September 9, 1926)
St. Faustina Kowalska says:
"Happy the soul that has come to understand the love of the Heart of Jesus. I feel I am wholly God’s property. I am completely at peace about everything, because I know it is the Spouse’s business to look after me. I have forgotten about myself completely. My trust placed in His Most Merciful Heart has no limit. I am continuously united with Him. It seems to me as though Jesus could not be happy without me, nor could I without Him."
An eight-year-old child from Costa Rica gives us a very meaningful testimony. In his words, he helps us recover what is most important and essential in our lives: the heart.
“In my house there are two rooms,
two small beds,
a small window,
and a white cat.
In my house we only eat at night,
when my father comes back with a bag
full of bread and dried fish.
In my house we are all poor,
but my dad has blue eyes,
my mom has blue eyes,
my brother has blue eyes,
I myself have blue eyes
and even my cat has blue eyes.
When we sit at the table
our house looks like a blue sky”.
A blue sky that shines with God's love and awaits only our reciprocation of love.