Suffering, compunction, consolation, forgiveness, reparation. These aspects are often forgotten in contemporary discussions of love and in popular slogans such as “Love is love.” While we may not expect secular ideas of love to consider such thoughts, even in Catholic moral theology a call to acting with love over all other principles sometimes omits the difficult or the unappealing aspects of love in favor of doing what matches our own positive association of love. Some might say that Christ died for our sins so that we could love freely as we choose, but, in fact, Christ’s sacrificial death allows us to love freely as he loved, including the embrace of that which is difficult in love.
In the 2024 encyclical entitled Dilexit Nos, on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Francis states that “In loving, we sense that we come to know the purpose and goal of our existence in this world” (23). When our hearts are united with the heart of Christ, we are capable of the social miracle of building the Kingdom of God (28). And yet, our hearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded (30).
The Sacred Heart also is wounded; the pope reminds us that the image of love presented by it involves a crown of thorns, showing “the suffering that the Lord chose to endure for the sake of that love” (151). Those who meditate on Christ’s suffering on the cross, bearing the burden of our sins, feel a desire to offer consolation by offering our own sufferings (157).
Francis then discusses the often-forgotten idea of compunction:
The natural desire to console Christ, which begins with our sorrow in contemplating what he endured for us, grows with the honest acknowledgment of our bad habits, compulsions, attachments, weak faith, vain goals and, together with our actual sins, the failure of our hearts to respond to the Lord’s love and his plan for our lives. This experience proves purifying, for love needs the purification of tears that, in the end, leave us more desirous of God and less obsessed with ourselves (158).
Dilexit Nos, paragraph 158
Dilexit Nos emphasizes that compunction is not guilt that discourages us and causes despair, but rather something that purifies and heals the heart as a work of grace to be sought in prayer, bringing sorrow united with Christ’s sorrow, ultimately ending in peace (159). “Our sufferings are joined to the suffering of Christ on the cross…whenever we endure suffering, we can also experience the interior consolation of knowing that Christ suffers with us. In seeking to console him, we will find ourselves consoled” (161). This consolation has a missionary component; rather than isolating us, it sends us forth to console others with Christ’s love (166). Thus the next section of the encyclical is “Extending Christ’s Love to Our Brothers and Sisters.”
Also of note is the discussion of reparation under three headings: social sin, mending wounded hearts, and asking forgiveness. First, citing John Paul’s post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, Francis states: “All sin harms the Church and society; as a result, ‘every sin can undoubtedly be considered as a social sin.’ (183). Building a civilization of love depends not simply on external acts of reparation but a meaning that comes from the heart of Christ (184).
The spirit of reparation also calls us to mend wounded hearts “Where the deepest harm was done, and the hurt is most painful” (184). Though complete reparation to others may seem impossible, “…Yet the intention to make amends, and to do so in a concrete way, is essential for the process of reconciliation and a return to peace of heart.’” (186).
Asking forgiveness is the outward expression of our inward desire. Rather than demeaning our human dignity, acknowledging our sins and asking forgiveness shows nobility and is a means of healing relationships (189). “A heart capable of compunction will grow in fraternity and solidarity” (190).
The letter continues by discussing the complementary approach to reparation in reference to the Sacred Heart. We are called to reparation to the heart of Jesus, but reparation is also an extension of the heart of Christ. Much of what we encounter as negative is used to draw us into cooperation with God, allowing “the power and the love of God to expand in our lives and in the world” (192). This reparation hinges on our free will to accepting his love presented as difficulties, rather than responding with rejection or indifference. In this sense, “reparation can be understood as our removal of the obstacles we place before the expansion of Christ’s love in the world by our lack of trust, gratitude and self-sacrifice” (194).
Next the pope clarifies that reparation is not about God’s justice, but about his mercy. In human terms, we understand paying off debts, and even our ability to pay off others’ debts. God does not seek this kind of reparation akin to a divine accounting system of justice, but rather he wants us to recognize his mercy by our willing acceptance of this gift of love. Thus the compensation of reparation that we offer is the possibility of spreading Christ’s love by free participation in his “redeeming love and his one sacrifice” – to love as Christ loves through the working of the Holy Spirit (202, 203, 204).
With these ending sections of Dilexit Nos, the pope has given us the opportunity to reflect on some ideas that have often been neglected in modern Catholic life and in recent Catholic moral theology. A relevant virtue worth considering is that of the virtue of penance. Thomas Aquinas discussed this virtue within his treatise on the sacraments, seeing it as the virtue that was exhibited when a person received the sacrament of Confession. We can also see the virtue of penance in accepting and offering suffering, in the compunction of sorrowing for our sins and uniting that to Christ’s suffering, in forgiving others and asking forgiveness, and, finally, in the reparation we offer to the Lord and also see as an extension of the Sacred Heart.
Although Francis did not mention the virtue or sacrament of penance, his reflections on the Sacred Heart in regard to suffering, compunction, forgiveness, and reparation are crucial in preventing penitential practices from becoming thoughtless or routine, which is always a risk for those who undertake penitential practices. Frequent or devotional confession, offering up suffering, abstaining from meat, or taking on other voluntary penitential practices can too easily become a matter of pride. Instead, we are reminded that all of these are rooted in, and find authenticity in, Christ’s love.
Dilexit Nos reminds us that we love with a wounded heart. We are not perfect or self-sufficient, but rather we depend on Christ’s own wounded heart to love as he would have us do. Our openness to seeking refuge in Christ’s heart is what allows us to accept suffering, offer consolation, feel compunction, and attempt reparation in a world that so desperately needs it.
