A painting by Pompeo Batoni of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from 1767 is displayed in an ornate frame inside the Jesuit Church of the Gesù in Rome, Oct. 22, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A world that has become "heartless" and indifferent to greed and war, and a Catholic Church in need of revitalizing its missionary joy need to open themselves up to Christ's infinite love, Pope Francis wrote.
By contemplating Jesus' Sacred Heart, the faithful can be filled with the "living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together toward a just, solidary and fraternal world," the pope wrote in his encyclical, "'Dilexit nos' ('He loved us'): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ."
The Vatican released the 28,000-word text Oct. 24.
While it is the pope's fourth encyclical, he wrote that it is meant to be understood in tandem with his previous two encyclicals, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" and "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship."
"The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social encyclicals … is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ," he wrote. "For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home."
The pope had said in June, the month the church traditionally dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that he was going to release a document in the fall on the devotion to "illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart."
The encyclical includes numerous reflections from the Bible, previous magisterial texts and the writings of saints and his fellow Jesuits, to re-propose to the whole church the centuries-old devotion. Since 1899, there have been four papal encyclicals and numerous papal texts dedicated to the Sacred Heart -- a symbol of Jesus' infinite love, which moves the faithful to love one another.
Read the full story at https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/only-love-will-save-humanity-pope-says-encyclical-sacred-heart