I haven’t yet finished reading Pope Francis’ encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Dilexit nos” (translated: “He Loved Us”). I know it came out last week; I’m behind. Please don’t tell me how it ends.
All the same, I have made good progress — thanks in large part to the contemplative solitude of the stiff, narrow bench outside of my daughter’s gymnastics class. Even in such a “prayerful” space, there was a line that jumped out at me. I think it’s worth sharing here. I think it’s worth bringing into our own prayer this week.
The pope is writing about the gaze of Jesus. It’s a brief section — just four paragraphs long — and Francis is describing the attentive disposition with which Jesus beholds both the people he meets in Scripture and each one of us.
Francis invites us to “imagine that moment, that encounter between [an individual’s] eyes and those of Jesus.” He goes on: “If Jesus calls you and summons you for a mission, he first looks at you, plumbs the depths of your heart and, knowing everything about you, fixes his gaze upon you.” (DN 39)
That’s the line that struck me. It speaks to the penetrating nature with which Jesus beholds us, delights in us and — importantly — beckons us forward. Francis uses the word “if” to start that sentence, but I think we know that there is no question whether Jesus is looking at us in love and calling us to join him in mission. Francis, I think, is rather using the word to emphasize the point: If Jesus calls us — and we know he does — then we can be confident in his all-encompassing gaze of love.
Francis goes on: “Precisely out of concern for us, Jesus knows every one of our good intentions and small acts of charity.” (41) So, Jesus looks at us with love, sees us for who we really are — and who we might yet become — and invites us to collaborate in Christ’s mission in a way that is unique to the person God has made us to be. He sees our failures and shortcomings, too. And you know what? He’s undeterred in his love and his invitation.
And all of this, just from Jesus’ gaze.
A few paragraphs down, while reflecting on Jesus’ self-sacrificing love for the people of God, the pope seems to catch himself: “all this may smack of pious sentimentalism.” (46) I like that. I like that the pope wants us to know that he’s rolling his eyes at any sort of glossy, feel-good interpretation of Jesus’ mission and ministry.
Jesus’ gaze, then, isn’t a neutral force; Jesus isn’t simply looking at us so that we can look back and smile like fools. Jesus’ gaze is an affirmation of our vocation and a reminder that our vocation — unique as it is — is bound up in mission. Christ beckons us, and we respond. There’s work to be done, and God knows we need to get after it.
A crucial meditation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola is the Call of Christ. It’s the bridge meditation that connects the First Week — focused on seeing clearly the sin and pain rampant in our world — with the Second Week — a series of contemplations on the life and ministry of Jesus. We necessarily respond to the Call of Christ and then accompany him in his work.
That’s the challenge of the Second Week of the Exercises, but it’s the invitation we each have every week of our lives. Pope Francis knows this. And he’s given us a beautiful image with which to enter ever more deeply into that mission.
So, today, as we consider Jesus’ call, let us first meet his gaze. Do you see in his eyes that love and delight? From that place of being seen, that place of being affirmed in who we are in this moment, let us then embrace the unique mission to which Christ calls us.
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