The papal nuncio to the United States urged the U.S. bishops to stay close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as they guide the Church in evangelizing in the current era.
“It is there, in the heart of Christ, where we re-discover in a personal way the kerygma that we preach: Christ has become one of us, he has suffered and died to heal our wounds, he has risen, and he is alive with us now in the Spirit,” said Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
“The deeper we go into his heart, the more strengthened we will be to proclaim the good news together: the news of a hope that, in spite of everything in this world, does not disappoint.”
Pierre delivered a Nov. 12 address to the U.S. bishops at their general assembly in Baltimore. His speech, focused on Christian discipleship, marked a shift from his other addresses in recent years, which have largely been exhortations to the bishops about synodality.
In his remarks, he pointed to Pope Francis’ new encyclical, entitled Dilexit nos, on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The cardinal described the encyclical, released last month, as both surprising in its simplicity and profound in its message. He said he believes the encyclical sheds light on much of what the Church is experiencing in the present moment.
He quoted the pope’s reflection that “Saint John Henry Newman took as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart.”
As Newman discovered, Christ wants to speak to each person from his Sacred Heart, Pierre said.
Many people encountered the love of Christ’s Sacred Heart at the Eucharistic Revival initiative that held its culminating national event in Indianapolis this past summer, he said.
This personal experience must be not a beginning but an end, prompting people to move to mission, he continued, encouraging the bishops to reflect on how to guide Catholics in doing so.
Pierre said Dilexit nos also helps explain the meaning of synodality, a term that he said some people are still unsure of at the conclusion of the multi-year synod on synodality.
“The synodal Church is a gathering of people who have come into relationship with the heart of Christ, and who are journeying together in order to share that relationship with others,” he said.
Rather than viewing the synod in terms of what it has accomplished, the nuncio said, the bishops should examine how conversations are taking place in the Church, and whether a true “synodality of heart” is developing.
“Is everyone participating who should be? Does listening take priority over competing? Is it an exercise of shared discernment?” he asked.
This type of synodal dialogue requires a return to the heart, which does not produce quick “results” or “victories,” but rather forms a powerful communion, he continued.
“First, when we return to our own heart, we find what is actually there: our true desires, our hopes and dreams, our thoughts and our judgments. We also encounter our fears, our disappointments, our disdain and our enmity. By opening our hearts – and all that is in them – to the heart of Christ, we allow him to unite his heart with ours, which both affirms and purifies our hearts as they become one with his. With a heart that is more united to the heart of Christ, we have more capacity for unity with the hearts of others.”
Pierre also commented on next year’s Jubilee Year.
“A jubilee is exactly what our world and our country need right now, but which no secular power or political solution could ever achieve. We can all see the fragmentation in the human community, especially during these seasons of heightened political activity. And if we look within, we can see the fragmentation in ourselves,” he said.
Pope Francis’ encyclical addresses the solution to this brokenness, the cardinal said, quoting the pope’s words that “the heart makes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship not shaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism.”
“By returning to the heart, we can address the ways in which we ourselves have become, if not incapable, then at least ‘handicapped,’ in our way of relating to certain others due to fragmentation,” the nuncio reflected.
Doing so will also provide a witness to hope, to which the Church is particularly called during the upcoming Jubilee of Hope, he said.
As the Church in the United States moves forward following the Eucharistic Revival and the synod, and ahead of the Jubilee Year, Pierre urged the bishops to prioritize devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“All of these experiences will produce fruit, provided that we return to the heart of Christ, that sacred place where human longing and divine love are united,” he said.
