“He Loved Us” reflects on the human and divine love Jesus has for all of God’s people

On October 24, the Vatican released Pope Francis’ fourth encyclical, “Dilexit nos” or “He Loved Us.” The title of this work refers to Romans 8:37 where St. Paul reflects on how we can never be separated from the love of Christ.
Pope Francis uses this image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to shape his extended meditation on how it is a synthesis of the Gospel. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“2. The symbol of the heart has often been used to express the love of Jesus Christ. Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today. Yet living as we do 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 a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.”

“167. 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.”

To read the full encyclical, you can download it from the Vatican’s website: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.html