A Pastor’s Thoughts

By Fr. Jim Muscatella, Blessed Trinity / St. Patrick parishes — 

Last Thursday, Oct. 24, Pope Francis released the fourth encyclical letter of his papacy, titled “Dilexit Nos” (“He Loved Us”). These Encyclicals have, for centuries, been the way sitting Popes have addressed timely questions facing the Christians of their times.

“Encyclical” comes from the Latin word meaning “in a circle.” We continue to use this term because these letters are intended to encircle the world, and are addressed to Christians and people of goodwill the world over. This letter, “He Loved Us,” speaks of Christ’s own heart, at once fully human and fully divine. Pope Francis writes how Christ’s Sacred Heart has been given over to us so that we may have our hearts renewed.

In a way, this fourth circular letter serves as a return of an arc that began with Pope Francis’s first letter, “Lumen Fidei” (“The Light of Faith”), released shortly after he became Pope in 2013. In this initial letter, the Pope reflected on the way we receive the gift of faith from God. By this gift of Faith, we see God at work in the world and especially in the life of the Church. On the natural level, we do not earn our lives. We instead receive life as a gift from our parents. We likewise receive the vision of Faith as a gift from God. In truth, everything that is, has been, or will ever be in existence ultimately comes forth from God – and to Him it always seeks to return.

In his second circular letter, “Laudato Si” (“Praise be to You”), Pope Francis reflected on humanity’s place in the natural world, which has always been God’s gift to man. Even as he writes of the beauty and dignity of creation, Francis writes of the interconnectedness of all creation, so wonderfully designed by God’s initiative and providence. Men and women, who have been given a special and pre-eminent place in the created order, are meant to live righteously and in harmony with the world created for them. We see once more that humanity, blessed with a wonderful existence from God, is likewise summoned to offer a worthy return – a return that culminates in lives lived in wonder-filled praise to our world’s Creator.

The third circular letter, “Fratelli Tutti” (“All Brothers”), focuses on the social challenges facing men and women the world over – ranging from the ever-lingering threat of armed conflict to the various ways our vulnerable brothers and sisters are shamefully exploited. Pope Francis here focuses on the ways we are being called amidst the current complexities and challenges. This call to contribute to a righteous social order finds its roots in humanity’s unique place in the created order, in which we are gifted by God with a capacity to responsibly act for the good of ourselves and others.

Finally, in the recent letter “He Loved Us,” Pope Francis returns to focus once more on the source of man’s existence and the ultimate end of humanity’s righteous endeavors – God Himself. In this letter, Pope Francis reflects on the way Christ came to engage with us men – by His now forever united Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – in order to bring us back to His Father from Whom we had strayed. In the image of Christ’s own Sacred Heart, the Pope reflects on the truly human and truly divine love with which Christ continually comes to meet us men – and how the love which radiates from Christ’s wounded and glorified heart transforms our own hearts like onto His.

In Christ’s heart, now shared with us for our return to the Father, the words given to Ezekiel (36:26-28) are fulfilled: “And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”