Jesus comes to His beloved apostles and says the word, “peace.” It is a word from the lips of the Resurrected Christ rich in Divine love, a treasure of hope, grace of right relationship with God. Jesus’ peace goes beyond all telling. It is the fulfillment of God’s love. As we celebrate the Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy we ponder anew God’s love and our participation in salvation history.

Dilexit Nos, He Loved Us, is the title of Pope Francis’s last encyclical that speaks to the depth of his own relationship with Jesus. He spoke about the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ. Pope Francis wrote, “All of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.” 

Pope Francis pondered with prayerful reflection, ‘Has the world become heartless and indifferent to greed and war? Does the Church need to revitalize its mission of joy? Does the Church need to open itself up to Christ’s infinite love?’ Pope Francis called on us to rediscover the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus heals our hurts and the hurts of others, strengthens our ability to love and serve others, inspires us to journey together towards a just and fraternal world.

As we celebrated Holy Week, we heard the prophet Isaiah proclaim, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me” (Isaiah 61:1). The Spirit of the Lord is upon you my brothers, and He has anointed you; to bring glad tidings to the lowly; to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to those in captivity.

Pope Francis asked, “Do you have a heart and where is your heart?” If the Spirit of the Lord is upon you and has anointed you to bring glad tidings to the poor, then let us anoint the poor with glad tidings. The poor are people who live in fear in our communities. Every person embodies the spiritual, emotional, creative and effective dimensions that are often undervalued, neglected, or squelched in today’s world, it is the heart that integrates all these dimensions that are so often fragmented or neglected. Pope Francis wrote, “This leads me to propose to the whole Church renewed reflection on the love of Christ represented in His Sacred Heart. For there we find the whole Gospel, a synthesis of the truths of our faith, all that we adore and seek in faith, all that responds to our deepest needs.”

Pope Francis called on us to rediscover the love and compassion found in the heart of Jesus Christ. His encyclical examines the transformative power of Jesus’ heart as a font of healing for a divided world. Pope Francis recalled how the Bible speaks of the heart as “the locus of sincerity, where deceit and disguise have no place.” The heart of Christ is ‘ecstasy,’ openness, gift, and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world — God’s Kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle. Pope Francis reminded us that it is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills. Christ’s call is one of service, a summons to do good, no matter your vocation or profession. Wherever you may be, you can hear His call and realize that He is sending you forth to carry out that mission.

This is the gift of Easter. We receive the infinite love of God, a love beyond all measure, by our participation in the Eucharist. He is risen and lives within our heart if we open our heart to Him! When we are filled full with this Divine Love, we cannot sit still. We desire to go forth and spread His Love by our very breath, by our words; by our deeds of kindness. There is no one on this earth who does not need the kindness and mercy of God, no matter their situation.

Be of God’s heart. Go forth and be His love among all the people.