We have a God who is ‘in love with us’, who tenderly caresses us and sings us a lullaby, just as a father does with his child. Not only that: he seeks us out first, waits for us and teaches us to be ‘little’, because ‘love is more in giving than in receiving’ and is ‘more in deeds than in words’. This is what Pope Francis recalled during Mass celebrated on the morning of Friday 27 June — the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta.

The Pope’s meditation drew inspiration from the opening prayer recited during the liturgy, in which, he said, “we gave thanks to the Lord because he gives us the grace, the joy of celebrating in the heart of his Son the great works of his love”.

And “love”, indeed, is the key word chosen by the Bishop of Rome to express the profound meaning of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. For, he noted, “today is the feast of God’s love, of Jesus Christ: it is God’s love for us and God’s love within us”. A feast, he added, that “we celebrate with joy”.

According to the Pontiff, there are two “aspects of love” in particular. The first is encapsulated in the statement that “love is more in giving than in receiving”; the second in that “love is more in deeds than in words”.

“When we say that it is more in giving than in receiving,” explained Pope Francis, “it is because love is always communicated, always communicates, and is received by the beloved.” And “when we say that it is more in deeds than in words,” he added, “it is because love always gives life, it makes things grow.”

The Pontiff then outlined the fundamental characteristics of God’s love for humanity. He thus highlighted certain passages from the day’s liturgical readings, which, he noted, “speak to us twice about the little ones.” Indeed, in the first reading, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy (7:6–11), “Moses explains why the people were chosen and says: because you are the smallest of all peoples”. Then, in the Gospel of Matthew (11:25–30), “Jesus praises the Father because he has hidden divine things from the learned and revealed them to the little ones”.

Therefore, the Pope affirmed, “to understand God’s love, this smallness of heart is necessary”. After all, Jesus says it clearly: unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Here, then, is the right path: “To become children, to become little”, because “only in that smallness, in that humbling of oneself, can one receive” God’s love.

It is no coincidence, observed the Bishop of Rome, that it is ‘the Lord himself’ who, ‘when explaining his relationship of love, tries to speak as if speaking to a child’. And indeed God ‘reminds the people: “Remember, I taught you to walk as a father does with his child”’. It is precisely ‘that father-to-child relationship’. But, the Pontiff warned, “if you are not small”, that relationship cannot be established.

And it is such a relationship that leads “the Lord, who is in love with us”, to use “even words that sound like a lullaby”. In Scripture, the Lord says in fact: “Fear not, O worm of Israel, fear not!” And he caresses us, in fact, saying: “I am with you, I take your hand.”

This “is the Lord’s tenderness in his love; this is what he communicates to us. And it gives strength to our own tenderness.” On the other hand, the Pope warned, “if we feel strong, we will never experience the Lord’s beautiful caresses.”

The “words of the Lord”, the Pontiff affirmed, “help us to understand that mysterious love he has for us”. It is Jesus himself who shows us how to do this: when he speaks of himself, he says he is “meek and humble of heart”. Therefore, “he too, the Son of God, humbles himself to receive the Father’s love”.

Another truth that the Feast of the Sacred Heart reminds us of, the Pope continued, can be drawn from the passage of the second reading taken from the First Letter of Saint John (4:7–16): “God loved us first; he is always ahead of us; he waits for us.” The prophet Isaiah “says of him that he is like the almond blossom, for it is the first to bloom in spring”. Therefore, the Pontiff reiterated, “when we arrive, he is there; when we seek him, he has sought us first: he is always ahead of us, waiting to welcome us into his heart, into his love”.

Summing up his meditation, Pope Francis reaffirmed that the two traits mentioned “can help us understand this mystery of God’s love for us: to express himself, he needs our smallness, our humbling ourselves. And he also needs our wonder when we seek him and find him there waiting for us.” And it is “so beautiful,” he observed, “to understand and feel God’s love in Jesus, in the heart of Jesus, in this way.”

The Pontiff concluded by inviting those present to pray to the Lord that He may grant every Christian the grace “to understand, to feel, to enter into this mysterious world, to be filled with wonder and to find peace in this love which communicates itself, gives us joy and leads us along the path of life like a child” held “by the hand”.

[Pope Francis, homily at Santa Marta, 27 June 2014; in L’Osservatore Romano, 28 June 2014]