Editorial

We need the healing power of Christ’s heart

A society dominated by narcissism and self-centeredness will increasingly become “heartless” (“Dilexit nos [“He loved us”]: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,” #17).

Here in the United States of America, we are a divided people. We disagree on many important issues, and we have opposing ideas about the kinds of leaders we need to solve our problems and reunite us as a country dedicated to basic principles of democracy and freedom.

During the recent presidential campaigns, we were all too often presented with contradictory information.

Ads and political messages about abortion, for example, were often deceiving and disturbing in their refusal to acknowledge the fact that an unborn child is created in the image and likeness of God, a person with inalienable human rights and dignity.

Similarly, the claims made about concern for the poor and vulnerable in our society, especially migrants and refugees, completely obscured the responsibility we have to welcome strangers and care for each other as sisters and brothers in the one family of God.

Pope Francis framed the moral issue faced by Catholics in the recent election as “choosing the lesser of two evils.” Now that this choice has been made, we have a responsibility to live with the consequences but, more importantly, to work together with all our fellow citizens to make our nation better, stronger, and more compassionate toward all.

With this in mind, the timing of Pope Francis’s new encyclical, (“Dilexit nos [“He loved us”]: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,” could not be more providential. This beautiful reflection on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the source of all love and compassion, urges us to pay attention to what is most important in our lives, in our families and communities, in our nation, and in our world.

Love is the main thing, the only thing, necessary to heal our broken hearts and our fractured world. “In a word,” the Holy Father says, “if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love” (#21). The cross is Christ’s most eloquent word of love, and this word becomes flesh for us in the Eucharist.

Love is what heals our wounds and brings us together. When love is missing, overrun by self-centeredness and arrogant individualism or pride, we become a heartless, uncaring and indifferent people.

As the pope says:

“For this reason, when we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indifference of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart. We need only to see and listen to the elderly women—from both sides—who are at the mercy of these devastating conflicts. It is heartbreaking to see them mourning for their murdered grandchildren, or longing to die themselves after losing the homes where they spent their entire lives. Those women, who were often pillars of strength and resilience amid life’s difficulties and hardships, now, at the end of their days, are experiencing, in place of a well-earned rest, only anguish, fear and outrage. Casting the blame on others does not resolve these shameful and tragic situations. To see these elderly women weep, and not feel that this is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has grown heartless” (#22).

The image of elderly women weeping perfectly captures the situation we find ourselves in today. In fact, it is reminiscent of the scene in St. Luke’s Gospel

(Lk 23:27-31) where Jesus encounters the women who are mourning his fate. The Lord counsels them to “weep not for me but for yourselves and for your children” (Lk 23:28). The world is a cold, cruel place. Sometimes the only possible response is to weep bitterly without ever losing hope.

The recent election has exposed our deep national wounds. It has demonstrated that as a country we are still very far from the profound ideals and great personal sacrifices that committed us to becoming a nation of peace, justice and liberty for all.

Jesus loves us—and weeps for us—because we are not where we want to be, or where we need to be, as a nation.

Let’s work tirelessly to “build a more perfect union” and to demonstrate to ourselves, and the rest of the world, that we are not heartless but truly are a compassionate and loving nation dedicated to the common good of all.

—Daniel Conway