The Sacred Heart of Jesus: A Love That Quenches All Thirst

by Fr. John Granato  |  05/25/2025  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends, We now return to Pope Francis’s encyclical, Dilext Nos (on the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The first nine paragraphs in chapter four deal with Scriptural references on the love of Jesus as thirst and as water. The title itself of chapter four is A Love that Gives Itself as Drink.

Quoting both Old and New Testaments, beginning with Isaiah 12:3, Pope Francis draws upon water imagery and the Sacred Heart. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Revelation 22:17 says, “Let everyone who is thirsty come; let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” When Jesus was pierced with a sword while hanging on the cross, out from his side flowed blood and water. Pope Francis writes in paragraph 101, “The pierced heart of Christ embodies all God’s declarations of love present in the Scriptures.

That love is no mere matter of words; rather, the open side of his Son is a source of life for those whom he loves, the fount that quenches the thirst of his people.” In paragraphs 102-108, Pope Francis cites early Church Fathers, such as St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Rufinus, St. Bernard, William of Saint-Thierry, and St. Bonaventure. St. Ambrose wrote, “Drink of Christ for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water.” The rest of the chapter from paragraph 109-163 focuses on the saints and theologians from roughly the high Middle Ages to the current day. Many of these quoted are female saints.

The Jesuits themselves served as spiritual directors for many of these saints, which is why I am sure Pope Francis quotes extensively from these figures. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was a big supporter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, (1673-1675) whose spiritual director was a Jesuit priest, St. Claude de la Colombiere. An earlier woman of faith that promoted the Sacred Heart was St. Gertrude. St. Francis de Sales and St. John Eudes were two of the many male saints quoted by Pope Francis that encouraged the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The consolation and compunction that goes with this devotion brings us a joy that we can unite ourselves to the suffering Christ on the cross, but also that we allow our Lord to bring us to the heart of the Father. Pope Francis ends chapter four with the heart of the Father, and he leads us into chapter five by saying that going to the Father’s love sends us forth to the love of our brothers and sisters. God bless