KEVIN M. DOWD, PH.D.
One of the final gifts that Pope Francis left the Church was a beautiful encyclical letter of October 2024 called Dilexit Nos, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.1 The Latin title comes from the first words, “He loved us,” a reference to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:37) in that section in which Paul is nearly ecstatic explaining that nothing, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord” (Rom. 8:38-9). “Even now,” says the pope, “the Lord says to us, ‘I have called you friends’ (1 John 15:15)” and “His open heart has gone before us and waits for us unconditionally, asking only to offer us his love and friendship” (DN, 1).
The letter traces and develops the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting its sublime theology (not sentimental) rooted firmly in Scripture, its connection to the Eucharist and the sacraments, its Trinitarian and ecclesial nature, its indispensable link with missionary discipleship, and its development over the centuries by saints and mystics, priests, popes, and People of God. Although Pope Francis did not specifically write the letter for catechists, it is nonetheless a profound document for religious educators, one that enriches our sense of being called by Love and which reminds us that Love is The Way!
The World’s Heart Condition
“Jesus is calling you,” says Pope Francis, “and sending you forth to spread goodness in our world. His call is one of service, a summons to do good, perhaps as a physician, a mother, a teacher, or a priest” (DN, 215). “[Y]ou can be a missionary. Jesus deserves no less” (DN, 216). Catechists know this call well, along with the challenges it brings. I have not met a catechist who did not try to “…carry it out confidently, generously, freely, and fearlessly” (DN, 215). And yet, don’t we also know the struggles with sports schedules, smart phones, and social media? Haven’t we also felt the frustration of lessons gone awry and wondered at times whether we are “reaching them”?
Pope Francis understood these challenges, and he worried that we are living more and more in a world where “No room is left for the heart” (DN, 9). In fact, he warned us that “A society dominated by narcissism and self-centeredness will increasingly become ‘heartless’” (DN, 17). Catechists, from their experience in the community, often know exactly what Pope Francis meant when he said we live 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 the market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives… immersed in societies of serial consumers, who live from day to day, dominated by the hectic pace and bombarded by technology, lacking in the patience needed to engage in the processes that an interior life by its very nature requires (DN, 2,9).
“The love of Christ has no place,” he said, “in this perverse mechanism…” (DN, 218). This calls for conversion. “The Second Vatican Council teaches that ‘every one of us needs a change of heart…’” and Pope Francis quoted further from Gaudium et Spes, “‘the imbalances affecting the world today are in fact a symptom of a deeper imbalance rooted in the human heart’” (DN, 29).
Having diagnosed a heart condition, like a spiritual cardiologist Pope Francis gives us a proper prescription:
Instead of running after superficial satisfactions and playing a role for the benefit of others,2 we would do better to think about the really important questions in life. Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions, and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I want to look back on my life once it ends? What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? All these questions lead us back to the heart (DN, 8).
His prescription for healing our hearts is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for “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,” he says, “united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle” (DN, 28). To speak of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to speak of God’s unconditional and self-giving love, and so Pope Francis directs us to turn “…to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love” (DN, 30). After all, “…only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for gratuitous love” (DN, 218). “For his love alone can bring about a new humanity” (DN, 219) and “…revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost” (DN, 218). In short, “Christ’s love can give a heart to the world” (DN, 218).
The Catechist’s Call
Who better than catechists (including especially parents, who are the primary catechists) to help young people to ask these existential questions and to share with them the flame of love coming forth from that Sacred Heart? We accompany them on what Pope St. John Paul II called “a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father” (DN, 71) modeling Jesus’ own love for them. Remembering that “Christ showed the depth of his love for us not by lengthy explanations but by concrete actions” (DN, 33), we especially point out that “The cross is Jesus’ most eloquent word of love” (DN, 46). “Christ shows that God is closeness, compassion, and tender love” (DN, 35). St. Thérèse of Lisieux understood this so well, writing to her sister Léonie, “I assure you that God is much better than you believe” (DN, 140). We are called to help our young people to see this and to see that “We need the help of God’s love” (DN, 30) reflected to us in the heart of Christ, which Pope St. John Paul II called “the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece” (DN, 75). For, “In the end, that Sacred Heart is the unifying principle of all reality” and “There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and learn how to love” (DN, 30-1). “The heart of Christ… stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs” (DN, 32). “It is precisely in his human love, and not apart from it, that we encounter his divine love” (DN, 67). It is no wonder that Pope Francis “…once more affirm[ed] that the Sacred Heart is a synthesis of the Gospel” (DN, 83).
The Heart of the Mission
This Christological and Trinitarian focus is a reminder to us who are catechists that the faith is not the doctrines (they exist in the service of faith)—as if faithfulness could ever simply amount to an intellectual affirmation of propositions—but, as St. Bonaventure said, “faith is in the intellect, in such a way as to provoke affection. In this sense, for example, the knowledge that Christ died for us does not remain knowledge, but necessarily becomes affection, love” (DN, 26). According to St. Vincent de Paul, “God asks primarily for our heart—our heart—and that is what counts,” (DN, 148). Pope Francis explained further: “This means allowing one’s heart to be united to that of Christ” (DN, 148).
There is no more privileged place for this union to occur than within the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In fact, Pope Francis says that devotion to the Sacred Heart, especially as it developed in the context of rigorist Jansenist teachings, “…led to a clearer realization that in the Eucharist the merciful and ever-present love of the heart of Christ invites us to union with him” (DN, 80,84). This was as true in the time of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1600’s as it is today. “Amid the frenetic pace of today’s world and our obsession with free time, consumption and diversion, cell phones and social media, we forget to nourish our lives with the strength of the Eucharist” (DN, 84).
“Mass” implies mission, and naturally, this union of our hearts with Christ’s in the Eucharist turns our hearts outward in the way of service, such that “…we offer the healing power of the heart of Christ new ways of expressing itself” (DN, 200). We, as catechists, are missionary disciples helping to form other missionary disciples. In serving, we teach the eternal value of service. We hope to form not only lifelong learners, as if faith were all in the head, but lifelong servants as well. Servants who love God and all God’s creation! The synoptic accounts of the Last Supper, focusing on what we call the Real Presence in the Eucharist, are naturally combined with the Johannine account, which reminds us of what it is all about: “…if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-5). After all, “What kind of worship would we give to Christ if we were to rest content with an individual relationship with him and show no interest in relieving the sufferings of others or helping them to live a better life” (DN, 205)? We who have received the Real Presence become the Real Presence of Christ in the world. Pope Francis writes, “We need once more to take up the word of God and to realize, in doing so, that our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters. There is no greater way for us to return love for love” (DN, 167).
As missionary disciples helping people to live a better life, we naturally share with them The Joy of the Gospel3“…in fellowship with our communities and with the whole Church” (DN, 212). This is the “missionary dimension of our love for the heart of Christ” (DN, 205). Pope Francis explains: “Mission, as a radiation of the love of the heart of Christ, requires missionaries who are themselves in love and who, enthralled by Christ, feel bound to share this love that has changed their lives” (DN, 209).
Isn’t this the heart of a catechist? We know that this has “nothing to do with proselytism” and that “With immense respect for their freedom and dignity, the lover simply waits for them to inquire about the love that has filled his or her life with such great joy” (DN, 210). And we know as well that “the greatest danger in mission is that, amid all the things we say and do, we fail to bring about a joyful encounter with the love of Christ who embraces us and saves us” (DN, 208). We certainly do not want to be numbered among “Those moralizers who want to keep a tight rein on God’s mercy and grace” (DN, 137)!4 Reflecting on the Sacred Heart as catechists helps us to remember, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, that “The Savior’s heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love” (DN, 77). In this devotion, we recall that “The pierced heart of Christ embodies all God’s declarations of love present in the Scriptures” (DN, 101). And so, with St. Thérèse of Lisieux (whom Pope Francis quotes extensively), we and our students might come to “speak of Jesus as the one ‘whose heart beats in unison with my own’” (DN, 134).
Heart Speaks to Heart
How do we foster and nurture this among our students? For one thing, imagine providing more time for silence, something they rarely have the opportunity to experience and have difficulty appreciating. And yet, in silence, Cor ad cor loquitur (Heart speaks to heart): “Along the same lines, St. John Henry Newman took as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart” (DN, 26). Prayer is first theology. Pope Benedict XVI understood this well, and he would be so pleased if our catechesis also included time for reflective silence, an opportunity to listen to that “still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12 KJV). Benedict said:
Every person needs a ‘center’ for his or her own life, a source of truth and goodness to draw upon in the events, situations, and struggles of daily existence. All of us, when we pause in silence, need to feel not only the beating of our own heart, but deeper still the beating of a trustworthy presence, perceptible with faith’s senses and yet much more real: the presence of Christ, the heart of the world (DN, 81).
There is nothing we, as catechists, want more for those we teach! In bringing them to the Heart of Christ, we hope for them to know for themselves “the tender consolations of faith, the joy of serving others, the fervor of personal commitment to mission, the beauty of knowing Christ, and the profound gratitude born of the friendship he offers and the ultimate meaning he gives to our lives” (DN, 88).
Encouragement from the Pope
Still, we may worry that this is a lot to ask of a catechist. It is a challenge to help make room for the Sacred Heart in a busy world. We may even get discouraged (literally, dis-heart-ened) when we think we are not making a difference. Then, more than ever, we must reaffirm our hope that what we do matters, that Christ is working through us and with us and in us for the good of the world and the glory of the Father, and that the work of the Holy Spirit cannot be stifled even by those we encounter who don’t prioritize religious education or by those schedules that leave little room for catechesis. Pope Francis seemed to know not only the heart of Christ, but our hearts as well. Like Mother Teresa who reminded us that faithfulness is what matters, not “success,” Pope Francis encourages us (literally, gives us heart) by saying:
If you accept the challenge, [Jesus] will enlighten you, accompany you, and strengthen you, and you will have an enriching experience that will bring you much happiness. It is not important whether you see immediate results; leave that to the Lord, who works in the secret of our hearts. Keep experiencing the joy born of our efforts to share the love of Christ with others. (DN, 216)
1 References to the document hereafter will use the abbreviation DN and the paragraph number, e.g.: (DN, 5).
2 He is not speaking of service to others here, but of wearing a mask and playing a role that is not authentic but merely a performance.
3 The name of Pope Francis’ first Apostolic Exhortation in 2013.
4 He also warns us against “a proliferation of varied forms of religiosity that have nothing to do with a personal relationship with the God of love…” and asks us to be on guard concerning “communities and pastors excessively caught up in external activities, structural reforms that have little to do with the Gospel, obsessive reorganization plans, worldly projects, secular ways of thinking, and mandatory programs…” (DN, 87-8).
Kevin M. Dowd, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Theology at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts.
