On the Love of Christ

This book combines two complementary papal documents: the last encyclical by Pope Francis and the first apostolic exhortation of Pope Leo XIV. Francis’s encyclical, Delexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, was issued six months before his death, timed for the 350th anniversary of the revelations on the Sacred Heart to St. Mary Alacoque. He had drafted a companion document, Dilexi Te: On Love for the Poor, which was completed by Pope Leo and published in 2025. Together they present a comprehensive reflection on Christ’s love, the first with emphasis on the spiritual dimensions; the second on the social implications.

Dilexit Nos, “He loved us,” takes its title from Romans 8:37. It is a deeply contemplative exploration of how the love of Jesus’s Heart awakens and transforms the human heart until we are able to share radically in his mission. The title of Dilexi Te, “I loved you,” comes from Revelations 3:9. In that scripture text the risen Christ addresses a community of “little power” that has nevertheless kept God’s word faithfully. The Exhortation affirms that our faith will not be authentic unless we share in, and learn from, God’s special love of the poor.

In her introduction, Mary Frohlich reflects on the background of each document, especially the tradition of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the teachings of the Latin American church on the preferential option for the poor, which shaped both Pope Francis and his successor. Together, they issue “a call to simplicity of life, personal encounter with Jesus, seeing with the eyes of the heart, being brothers and sisters with the poor, missionary discipleship, and active building of a society based in gospel values. It is this communion with ‘the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ’ that will enable the embers of the church’s renewal at Vatican II to come to life again in in the twenty-first century and beyond.”