On May 15, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Pope Pius XII's Sacred Heart Encyclical entitled "Haurietas Aquas." For that occasion he wrote a letter to Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the General Superior of the Society of Jesus and the Director General of the Apostleship of Prayer. This letter should inspire all of us to renew our efforts to spread the knowledge of God's love revealed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here is his letter:To the Most Reverend Father
PETER-HANS KOLVENBACH, S.J.
Superior General of the Society of Jesus
The words of the prophet Isaiah – “And you will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation” (Is 12,3) – which open the Encyclical in which Pius XII recalled the first centenary of the extension to the entire Church of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – have lost none of their significance today, 50 years later. In promoting the cult of the Heart of Jesus, the Encyclical Haurietis aquas exhorted believers to open their hearts
to the mystery of God and his love, allowing themselves to be
transformed by it. After fifty years Christians still have the task
of continuing and deepening their relationship with the Heart of
Jesus in order to revive their faith in God’s salvific love, welcoming it
more and more effectively into their own lives.
The Redeemer’s pierced side is the source to which the Encyclical Haurietas aquas refers us: we must draw on this source to attain true knowledge of Jesus Christ and experience his love more deeply. We may thus understand better the significance of knowing, in Jesus Christ, God’s love, experiencing it through keeping our gaze fixed on Him, to the point of living completely on the experience of his love, in order to then be able to bear witness to it to other people. In fact, to quote an expression of my venerated Predecessor John Paul II, “close to the Heart of Christ, the human heart learns to know the true and only sense of life and his own destiny, to understand the value of an authentically Christian life, to beware of certain perversions of the heart, to unite filial love for God with love for his neighbor. Thus – and this is the true reparation the Savior’s Heart requires – it will be possible to build the civilization of the Heart of Christ on the ruins accumulated by hatred and violence” (Teachings, vol. IX/2, 1986, p.843).
Knowing God’s love in Jesus Christ
In the Encyclical Deus caritas est I have quoted saint John’s statement in his first Letter: “We have seen God’s love for us and we have believed it”, to stress that at the origin of being Christian there is the meeting with a Person (cfr. n.1). Since God has manifested himself in the most profound way through his Son’s incarnation, making himself “visible” in Him, it is in our relationship with Christ that we can recognize who God really is (cfr. Enc. Haurietas aquas, 29-41; Enc. Deus caritas est, 12-15). And again: since God’s love has found its deepest expression in the gift Christ made of his life for us on the Cross, it is in looking above all at his suffering and his death that we can recognize more and more clearly God’s unlimited love for us: “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life (Jn 3,16).
Moreover this mystery of God’s love for us does not constitute only the contents of the cult and the devotion to Jesus’ Heart: it is equally the contents of every true christian spirituality and devotion. It is therefore important to stress that the foundation of this devotion is as old as Christianity itself. In fact being Christian is possible only if our gaze is turned on our Redeemer’s Cross, “ on the one whom they have pierced” (Jn 19,37; cfr. Zc 12,10). The Encyclical Haurietis aquas rightly reminds us that the wound in the side and those left by the nails have been the signs of a love which has more and more incisively shaped the lives of countless souls (cfr. n.52). Recognizing God’s love in the Crucifix has become for them an inner experience which has made them confess, with Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20,28), thus allowing them to attain a deeper faith through unreservedly welcoming God’s love (cfr. Enc. Haurietis aquas).
Experiencing God’s love through turning our gaze on the Heart of Jesus Christ
The deepest sense of this cult for the love of God is manifested only when we consider more closely its contribution not only to the knowledge but also, and above all, to the personal experience of this love in trusting devotion to his service (cfr. Haurietis aquas , 62). Obviously experience and knowledge cannot be separated: the one refers to the other. It must also be stressed that true knowledge of God’s love is possible only in the context of a humble attitude of prayer and generous availability. Starting from this inner attitude, our gaze on the side pierced by the lance is transformed into silent adoration. The gaze we turn on the Lord’s pierced side, from which “blood and water flow” (cfr. Jn 19,37), helps us recognize the multitude of gifts of grace which stem from it (cfr. Enc. Haurietis aquas, 34-41) and opens our hearts to all the other forms of Christian devotion included in the cult of the Heart of Jesus.
Faith understood as the fruit of the experience of God’s love is a grace,
a gift of God. But man can experience faith as a grace only insofar as he
accepts it within himself as a gift, on which he tries to live. The cult
of God’s love, to which the Encyclical Haurietis aquas invited the
faithful (cfr. ibid., 72), must help us to incessantly
remember that He voluntarily took on himself this suffering “for
us”, “for me”. When we practice this cult we not only gratefully recognize
God’s love but continue to open our hearts to it in such a way as
to model our lives on it more and more. God who has poured his love
“into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us” (cfr. Rm 5,5) invites us to untiringly welcome his love. Therefore our
relationship with God is the first scope of the invitation to give
ourselves completely to Christ’s salvific love and devote ourselves to it
(cfr. ibid., n.4). This is why this cult, which is entirely
directed towards love for God who sacrifices himself for us, is of such
irreplaceable importance for our faith and for our life in
love.
Living and bearing witness to the love we experience
He who inwardly accepts
God’s love is molded by it. Man lives the love of God he
experiences as a “call” to which he must answer. Turning our gaze on
the Lord, who “took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for
us” (Mt 8, 17), helps us to become
more attentive to the suffering and needs of others. Adoring contemplation
of the side pierced by a lance makes us sensitive to God’s salvific will.
It makes us able to place our trust in his salvific and merciful
love and at the same time strengthens our desire to participate in
his work of salvation, becoming his instruments. The gifts received from
the open side, from which “blood and water” poured (cfr Jn
19,34), lead to our lives becoming a
source from which “flow fountains of living water” (Jn 7,38) for others too (cfr. Enc. Deus
Caritas est, 7). The experience of love
drawn from the cult of the Savior’s pierced side protects us from the risk
of turning in on ourselves and makes us more available to a life for other
people. “This has taught us love – that he gave up his life for us; and we,
too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers (1Jn 3, 16) (cfr. Enc. Haurietis aquas 38).
The answer to the commandment of love is made possible only by the experience that this love has already been given us by God (cfr. Enc. Deus caritas est, 14). Therefore the cult of the love which becomes visible in the mystery of the Cross, represented in every Eucharistic Celebration, constitutes the foundation on which we can become persons capable of loving and giving ourselves (cfr. Enc. Haurietis aquas, 69), becoming instruments in Christ’s hands: only thus can we be credible announcers of his love. But this opening of our hearts to God’s will must renew itself at every moment: “Love is never ‘finished’ and complete” (cfr. Enc. Deus caritas est, 17). Therefore gazing on the “side pierced by the lance”, in which shines God’s boundless will for salvation, cannot be considered a passing form of cult or devotion: the adoration of God’s love, which has found its historical-devotional expression in the symbol of the “pierced heart”, remains absolutely necessary for a living relationship with God (cfr. Enc. Haurietis aquas, 62).