
If I was to sit down with a stranger for a fleeting moment and had just one sentence to summarise the New Testament and share the Good News, I would say, “The New Testament is the proclamation of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and his teachings of redemption, salvation and love.”
As St John tells us “God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16-17).
Jesus’ own teaching has love as a bedrock in the face of adversity. He tells us to answer hate with love, to answer violence with peace.
Our Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP, when articulating the notion of social friendship at World Youth Day last year, shared with young people that, “Christian wisdom is clear: we are made for friendship, communion, love.” That we are made for, “loving our families, loving our friends at school, uni, work, loving our nation, our world, loving God, loving ourselves.”
It’s a beautiful description. Clear, concise, uncomplicated. Everything that we strive for in human endeavour should have a foundation in the notion of loving others with the truth and mercy of the Gospel.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Catholic devotion known across the world, not only for Catholics but other Christians and even non-Christians who recognise the icon of the flaming heart.

It is a devotion particularly extolled by the Jesuits, which is why it is not surprising that Pope Francis 4th encyclical—Dilexit Nos (“He Loved Us”)—released concurrently with the end of the Synod on Synodality, implores us to examine the “heart’ of both the Church and our individual Christian lives, centring on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the boundless love that Christ has to offer us:
“The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs.”
In the first chapter Pope Francis urges us to be more compassionate, merciful and unified in an increasingly disconnected world.
Chapter Two explores God’s compassionate love for us and the sacrifice of Christ as the deepest love of all.
“The cross is Jesus’ most eloquent word of love. A word that is not shallow, sentimental or merely edifying. It is love, sheer love. That is why Saint Paul, struggling to find the right words to describe his relationship with Christ, could speak of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). This was Paul’s deepest conviction: the knowledge that he was loved.”
In the third chapter, Pope Francis speaks of Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ. “More than any other part of his body, the heart of Jesus is “the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love.”
Chapter Four proclaims a God who thirsts for love and the promise of the life-giving waters of baptism. This grace flows freely from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross, an expression of God’s ardent love for his people.

The final chapter of the encyclical calls for the faithful to respond to this divine love through the Eucharist and devotion to the Sacred Heart, to build a society based on the gift and virtue of love.
“Love for the brothers and sisters of our communities—religious, parochial, diocesan and others—is a kind of fuel that feeds our friendship with Jesus. Our acts of love for our brothers and sisters in community may well be the best and, at times, the only way that we can witness to others our love for Jesus Christ. He himself said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).”
The conclusion of the encyclical instructs us that only Christ’s love can free us from the cycle of consumerism and accumulation of wealth and inspire true selfless love.
Your mission this week? Find the Holy Father’s encyclical online, read it, and devote some prayer time to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and to share his great love with others.