As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, man was created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and through this to save his soul, and the other things on the face of the earth were created for man and to help him in the pursuit of the end for which he was created. That is, we were created to love. That is man’s vocation: to love. What is at stake in this life is to love. Now, the greatest thing is the love of God. And, if we truly love God, we also love our brothers. It can therefore be said that we were created to love God.
It is quite natural that those who love God should strive to work in “the things of God.” But, merely working on the “things of God” does not satisfy us fully, it does not satisfy us, it does not fill us with happiness. The heart is made not for things, but for a very concrete, singular, and unrepeatable reality, which is the person, just as he or she is. We are designed to love “someone.” And, a “who” is not exhausted in the impersonal categories of a “what,” a “something,” a “thing,” and “essence.” The concrete man is a relational being, a “being for Him,” a being for a You, a You that has infinite richness, and that is love. It is understandable, then, that Saint Teresa of Calcutta preferred to refer to Jesus Christ as Jesus, rather than as Christ since in this way the dimension of the Beloved of her heart was reflected more. The “Lord of things” is more important than “the things of the Lord.” So, it is not so much a question of merely doing things, the “things of the Lord” – however many they may be done – as of loving the “Lord of things”, truly loving Him. Merely doing is insufficient, it is something empty because the human heart is made to beat for Him, to be in interpersonal relationship with Him; only this fills it. In short, the Lord comes first, and we occupy ourselves with “the things of the Lord” for love of the “Lord of things”.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta explained it very well. She, who, with her religious, dedicated herself so much to the needy, said: we are not nurses, but lovers of Jesus. We do it for Jesus! She saw clearly that the soul of her apostolate was love for Jesus. That is precisely what is needed: lovers of Jesus!
To keep this flame of love for Jesus alive, prayer is necessary, as well as an interpersonal “encounter” with Christ, a loving relationship with God, being in intimate company with Him. Pope Francis recently recalled this, referring to an address by this great saint of charity at the UN: “I am only a poor nun who prays. By praying, Jesus puts his love in my heart and I go out to give it to all the poor I meet on my way. Pray too! Pray and you will notice the poor who are at your side. Perhaps on the same floor of your house. Perhaps even in your home, there is someone who awaits your love. Pray, and your eyes will be opened, and your heart will be filled with love.”
The most intimate part of a person is the heart. In the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we find his person, as well as his divine and human love. He has loved us first. Let us allow ourselves to be loved by his Heart, allowing him to do in us the work of divine grace. We understand very well the heartbeat of the one who, besides being God, was a true man, equal in everything to man, except in sin. Moreover, being God, he loves us with infinite love. Love is repaid with love. Our love for Him must be from heart-to-heart, from you to you. The flower of our love is for his heart, for his divine person, Jesus!
Since Christ told us that whatever we do to one of these little ones, we do to Him, devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus leads to an apostolic attitude, to speak of the Beloved, to a mission of compassion for the world.
Pope Francis, in this encyclical, has invited us to live in a more harmonious way, opening ourselves fully to the reality of God and of our brothers, especially those who are going through serious difficulties, and to do so in a very human, as well as very supernatural way, through love.
