on the NEW Encyclical on the Sacred Heart
Dilexit Nos, “synthesis of the pontificate” according to the rector of Paray-le-Monial Rector of the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, Father Etienne Kern is delighted with the publication of the “treasure” that is Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis’ fourth encyclical on the love of the human and divine heart of Jesus.
It seems, he says, that the Sacred Heart is the “living source” of everything the Pope has carried since the beginning of the pontificate, a “unifying center for all, a reason for joy that energizes us and sends us on a mission.”
Interview by Marie Duhamel – Vatican City
Returning to a spirituality of the heart in a liquid world that needs forgiveness and reparation.
In his 4th encyclical, initially planned for June, the month of the Sacred Heart, but finally published this Thursday, October 24 at the end of the Missionary Month of October, the Pope proposes to rediscover devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Dilexit nos – “He loved us so much” says Saint Paul to Christ (Rm 8:37) – stands out for its very spiritual and personal tone after more social encyclicals. It rehabilitates the importance of the heart denatured by centuries of rationalism, idealism and certain contemporary excesses, from consumerism to nihilism. Demonstrating since the first hours of his pontificate his attachment to popular piety, which he describes as the “immune system of the Church”, Francis calls for trusting in the love of Christ represented in his Sacred Heart, which is part of a long tradition. In Europe, devotion to the Heart of Jesus became popular 350 years ago, with the apparitions of Paray-le-Monial.
Interview with Father Etienne Kern, rector of the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, cradle of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
What was your reaction to the publication of this fourth encyclical of the Pope on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus, while you yourselves are in the middle of the jubilee of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial?
Obviously, for us, the publication of a document was desired but unexpected, and that this document actually appears and that it is an encyclical… And then what an encyclical, what breadth and what a convocation of the whole tradition, of the Magisterium, of Scripture, of spiritual authors in their number. The treasure that is made available to believers through this encyclical is for us an immense act of thanksgiving.
At the time, the mystical experiences of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque were “a response to the Jansenist rigorism that had ended up ignoring the infinite mercy of God,” Francis writes.
But today? In what context and why does Francis re-propose this devotion? Read also “He loved us”, the Pope’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus 10/24/2024
“He loved us”, the Pope’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The immediate context of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart 350 years ago is marked by rationalism which makes God very distant, by the initial “flick” that God gives, he who is the “great watchmaker” in Voltaire, and then by Jansenism where God has become distant, an implacable, merciless judge, where one would need an impeccable moral life to be able to answer him, marked by the fear of God and hell in an excessive way. And the remedy is the Sacred Heart. And this is not only true for this historical period. Jansenism is a virus that has a hard time dying within our consciences and our life as a Church. So, this remedy remains more relevant than ever, recalling on the one hand that God is close, that He loved us with a human heart, the Second Vatican Council will say, and also that He is love, that He loves us, that His love is unconditional. Whatever we do, “He loved us so much.” And it is this inner upheaval that makes us respond love for love, not by force of will, not as a moral obligation that would crush us or a kind of injunction, but as an upheaval, a piercing of the heart where we love because we are loved and that, little by little, there is a transformation that comes from within.
The context in which this encyclical is set is also, says the Pope, a “liquid society” where we are all consumers and which forgets the tenderness of the heart.
Yes, we have the impression that the message of Paray-le-Monial is even more relevant than at the time. When the Lord complains about ingratitude and indifference, it is perhaps our time that is a time of ingratitude, of indifference towards God and also, consequently, towards our brothers. The social bond is disintegrating and so, when the Lord comes to show his heart that is gentle and humble, he invites us as if to a “social miracle” – this is the expression that Pope Francis uses in his encyclical so that this experience that we have of God transforms our ways of acting.
And this is one of the many contributions of the Pope’s document, it shows how this devotion is not intimate but on the contrary deeply mobilizing in the transformation of society and the proclamation of the Gospel.
Francis also underlines the importance of returning to the Sacred Heart to repair wounded hearts and, in doing so, the damage that has been done to the world.
Yes, there is much suffering, much pain, including within the Church and also in our families. And the Pope makes a proposal. It is that this response of love to this love that precedes us and which is God’s love for us, we can express it towards our brothers. And in doing so, he bases it on Scripture, on Saint Vincent de Paul and other saints who come to say that we can return love for love by taking care of our brothers and sisters, starting with the smallest, those who suffer.
The Pope offers something very unifying between our spirituality, our adoration, our interiority and our overflowing love towards others, in compassion, social commitment in the name of the Gospel, because the Lord identified himself with the weakest, the smallest. So yes, people need to be consoled near the Heart of Jesus, to rest on the Heart of Jesus, to experience the fact that God consoles, that He heals, that He repairs. Because it is God who repairs. And we are witnesses of this reparation and we enter into this movement of reparation, humbly, taking our place and letting God act in hearts with strength and power. This is what the Lord said to Saint Margaret Mary: “If you believe, you will see the power of my Heart.” People who come to Paray-le-Monial to rest on the Heart of Jesus, experience the gentleness, the infinite delicacy of God, and at the same time his power of recreation, consolation and reparation.
Is this what will allow this missionary momentum?
Yes, because it is the deep heart, it is the dynamite that is inside of ourselves that gives this power then in our actions that will overflow in the contemplative life for those who are in monasteries, in associative or political life. If we want to play our role, we need to return to the heart, that is to say to find a center that unifies us deeply as Christians and that unites us with each other to carry out this mission together. And it seems to me that the encyclical of Pope Francis plays this role of unifying center, of synthesis which suddenly energizes, rejoices and sends.
We have the impression that this text is like a spiritual basis for the Pope’s previous encyclicals, that it could have been a prequel to Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti.
What really touched me was that this encyclical is the key to the pontificate. There are perhaps people who have a very political or very socially engaged vision of the magisterium of Pope Francis. And the Pope comes to say: all this only makes sense and is only understandable if you have the key. And the key is that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart, seized with compassion before the crowds like sheep without a shepherd. This is what the Pope is talking to us about and this is what can animate us and perhaps reconcile us, for those who are a little destabilized by the magisterium of Pope Francis. This can profoundly reconcile all the sensibilities that are present in the Church, who will find in this text something that creates a kind of unanimity, a single heart and a single soul.
What can we say about the abundance of French figures, intellectuals and saints mentioned by the Pope in this encyclical?
It is indeed remarkable in this encyclical. The Pope quotes many spiritual authors, notably French authors, at great length, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Margaret Mary, Saint Claude La Colombière, Saint Charles de Foucauld, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Saint Vincent de Paul, the Jesuit Michel de Certeau. And it is like a provocation that is made to us, to us French. “France, what have you done with the Heart of Jesus?” Because this devotion has been particularly entrusted to us. It is a grace, not to glorify ourselves, but as a responsibility. Perhaps we should re-appropriate what we had somewhat forgotten. Today it is as if the Pope were unblocking the wells that had been somewhat silted up in past decades. Now the well is unblocked. “Come and drink from the living springs.” There is a treasure there that we need as a Church, because the world needs to burn and this document is fire, because it speaks of the fire of the Heart of Jesus.
Source: Dilexit Nos, «synthèse du pontificat» selon le recteur de Paray-le-Monial – Vatican News