The philosopher Paul Ricoeur once claimed, “the symbol gives rise to thought” because its meaning cannot be exhausted by any conceptualizations.
Religious symbols do this. Candles shine the light of faith; incense raises our prayer to God above. Church architecture draws us toward the supernatural. Liturgical rituals give rise not just to thought (beliefs), but to experience (grace).
In Christian spirituality, no symbol has inspired more thought than the Sacred Heart. From the gospel account of Jesus’s pierced heart (John 19:34-35) to saints’ testimony of visionary experiences, the heart of Jesus has inspired continual devotion, evident still in monthly practices.
Now Pope Francis examines this symbol in an encyclical entitled “Dilexit nos.” Those words – “He loved us” – disclose the fundamental meaning of the Sacred Heart. The papal letters explore many more thoughts to which the symbol gives rise.
The Holy Father’s reflections draw on the actions and words of Jesus, the insights of numerous saints, and the wisdom of philosophers and previous popes. His letter intends to remind readers that “Devotion to Christ’s heart is essential for our Christian life to the extent that it expresses our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love” (n. 83).
This essential devotion capitalizes on the image of the heart. It’s humanly real. It’s universally relatable. It’s central to our personal identity and critical to social interactions.
Embraced by poets and philosophers and people everywhere, the symbol comes with a cautionary papal note. Writing about veneration of the image, Francis notes that “while the depiction of a heart afire may be an eloquent symbol of the burning love of Jesus Christ, it is important that this heart not be represented apart from him.”
Yet, that is often how the image is portrayed. It is so in the coat of arms designed by Saints Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal for the Visitation Order of nuns, which the pope references (n. 118), as a way to inspire imitation of the virtues of that sacred, suffering heart.
It is so in the sketch made by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, the “apostle of the Sacred Heart,” following one of the great apparitions of Jesus. Placed upon altars, near crucifixes, or in dedicated chapels, her drawing invited a contemplative gazing upon the Sacred Heart that would become a hallmark of the devotion.
It is so in sacred art and has been transposed in forms as varied as insignia, magnets, or car medallions (popularized by the Sacred Heart Auto League). It appears on book covers (my own!), and even social media marketing posts (from the USCCB!).
Perhaps the pope is turned off by visceral anatomical details. Perhaps he is dismayed by “kitschy and off-putting” images that “have distanced many Catholics from a powerful way of looking at Jesus,” as Jesuit Father James Martin describes them.
But if we appreciate the power of symbolism, devotion doesn’t suffer from art; it’s driven by it, because of the unique human ability to imagine. However the sacred image is depicted, it intends to draw the viewer into the mystery of God’s sacrificial love for human beings. Gazing upon the Sacred Heart is meant to transport us into the vital center of Jesus Himself – which is the pope’s point of emphasis.
The Holy Father’s rightful concern for “a personal relationship of encounter and dialogue” with the Christ whose heart is symbolized leads him to explore anew two traditional aspects of the devotion, as revealed to Saint Margaret Mary (nn. 119-124), which he “extends” to today’s world.
In terms of humanity’s failure to respond to God’s love, the pope recovers “compunction” in positive terms. He concentrates on “the desire often felt in the hearts of the faithful who lovingly contemplate the mystery of Christ’s passion and experience it as a mystery which is not only recollected but becomes present to us by grace” (n. 152). From that he concludes that “love needs the purification of tears that, in the end, leave us more desirous of God and less obsessed with ourselves” (n. 158).
The pope also situates the devotion’s emphasis on “reparation” in a new light. He notes the “vital social dimension” of this tradition, such that “our acts of love, service and reconciliation, in order to be truly reparative, need to be inspired, motivated and empowered by Christ.” Moved by hearts desiring to return love for love, our external Christian works “need a ‘mystique’, a soul, a meaning that grants them strength, drive and tireless creativity. They need the life, the fire and the light that radiate from the heart of Christ” (n. 184).
Pope Francis has elsewhere emphasized the role of the heart for listening and speaking well in our social communications. He recently highlighted the enduring legacy of the spirituality of the heart lived and taught by St. Francis de Sales.
Now he gives us a paradigmatic and perpetual focus that may well constitute the high point of his papal teaching. He reminds us that “Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost” (n. 218).
In “Dilexit Nos,” Pope Francis helps us to find that love once again.
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Oblate Father Thomas Dailey holds the John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he also directs the new Catholic Preaching Institute.
