Discourse given during the torchlight procession at the “Congress of the Sacred Hearts” in 1944.

There are three words that seem to stir and arouse the contemporary world; words fundamental to all systems that offer themselves as solutions to the evils of our era: collectivity, solidarity and social justice. Our Holy Mother the Church has not neglected these words. Much to the contrary, it has imbued them with infinitely greater richness and an even more profound revolutionary content; rising above them, it speaks rather of unity, fraternity and love.

These three words have always been the foundation of all Church teaching but particularly in these our days which have witnessed an unprecedented development in the richness of its most revolutionary social doctrines ever before seen in history. Christians, you are neither machines nor beasts of burden, you are sons of God! Loved by Christ, heirs of heaven… Authentic sons of God; you are one in Christ; in Christ there are neither rich nor poor; neither bourgeois nor proletariat; neither Aryans nor Saxons; neither Mongols nor Latins but Christ is the life of those who wish to accept the divinization of their being. The great devotions that fill our century, those that shine like the sun and moon in our firmament, are deep faith in Christ, our path to the Father and childlike tenderness for Mary, our sweet Mother and our path to Christ. Love for Mary deepens our understanding that she is who she is, thanks to Christ, her son. Go to Jesus, are the uninterrupted words of Mary, advice that resounds each night during the Month of Mary. And the faithful do go to Jesus.

And this has been the wise design of our Venerable Pastor who convoked this Congress of the Sacred Hearts. In this moment when the world bleeds, on the eve not of celebration but rather of lamentation that during six consecutive Christmases the word Peace has not resounded among men, who can know how much longer canons may continue to roar and brothers may hate and tear each other apart. In these moments when we see our nation enter into one of the most difficult times in its history, when unemployment circles our great industrial centers and we begin to see factories close and workers sucked into the desperation of misery. In these moments in which words of hatred, the fruit of bitterness and hunger, understandably become razor-sharp, our Bishop desires that we raise our eyes to this symbol of a love that does not perish, that does not make fools of us, a love that, if it tests us, it does so for our good, a love that offers strength in despair, that incites us to love truly and urges us to make it real, first with works of justice, but justice exceeded and crowned by charity. In the midst of the shedding of so much blood by human hatred, by the greed to possess and the passion for honor, our Mother the Church desires that we look on that other blood, divine blood shed for love, out of desire to give itself, for the highest ambition of making us happy. The blood of hatred washed in the blood of love.

In these moments, my brothers, our first mission must be to be convinced from the bottom of our hearts that God loves us. All of us, creatures of earth, rich and poor, God loves us; his love has not perished for we are his sons. This simple cry, full of hope must never grow cold on our lips: God loves us, we are his sons… We are his sons! O you 50,000,000 men who wander far from your country, dragged from your homes by the hatred of war, God loves you! Have faith! God loves you! Jesus too wished to know your pain and was forced to flee from his country and eat the bread of exile! You workers buried in the depths of the earth or under the sea, digging out coal to earn a fragment of bread, God loves you! You are his sons! The Son of God was himself a laborer! You sick, on your bed of pain, devoured by disease, you are the sons of God! God loves you, Jesus, your brother understands your suffering, he who took upon himself the pain of the world. You beggars, you who lack everything, even a roof to cover you, you who live under the bridges or huddled in miserable shacks… God loves you! You are his sons! The birds of the air have nests and the foxes their dens but Jesus our brother had nowhere to lay his head. You who courageously defend the rights of the oppressed, those who ask that the workers receive a salary worthy of their dignity as men, those who cry out, at times like John in the desert, that there be greater equality in the work place, greater equality in the distribution of burdens and the joy of the benefits, may the word love cease to be an empty shell and be filled with profound divine and human meaning, do not stop, do not fear. You are not revolutionaries, but profoundly human, even more divine because God loves his sons and desires them to be treated like sons and not like pariahs. If you suffer persecution for justice, do not be dismayed, He suffered it first, he died to give testimony of the truth of love. Have confidence, He has conquered the world and you will conquer as well if you do not separate yourselves from his teaching and example.

If God loves us, how can we fail to love him? And if we love him, then fulfill his great commandment, his commandment par excellence: A new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you; in this they will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. Devotion to the Sacred Hearts cannot content itself with savoring the love of God but must repay it with concrete love in return. And the magnificent reason that elevates our love of neighbor to a height never suspected by any human system is that our neighbor is Christ. May respect for our neighbor take the place of distrust: may we see in each man, poor as he might be, the image of Christ and treat him with the spirit of justice and love; but above all, with that confidence in him that a man values most, a trust better than the cold coin of charity. May he be paid a just salary, sufficient for a truly human life, one I would wish for myself if I were working in his place; may it be given with a gesture of respect and gratitude on the part of one who realizes that human labor can never be sufficiently compensated with money and that in this sense we will always remain debtors of those laborers who water our fields with the sweat of their brow, tilling the earth to provide those goods that bring us comfort and well being.

During these days our gaze will be directed to the Sacred Heart, the heart of him who commanded us to love our brothers and that look will fill us with shame if we find ourselves with too much comforts and luxuries while so many of our brothers are lacking even the most essential necessities: what have you done for my little ones? we will hear from the lips of the Master. When we raise our eyes and find them gazing into those of Mary our Mother, she will show us a multitude of her children, most beloved of her heart who suffer from the most total and absolute ignorance; she will show us the conditions of their lives where the practice of virtue is impossible and she will tell us: my children, if you truly love me as a mother, do what you can for these my children who suffer most, and are, for that reason, the most beloved of my heart.

You Christians who enjoy comfortable circumstances, look at those who are overwhelmed by the conditions of their lives; those who have, let them give to those who have nothing: give them justice, give them the service of your time; put your education, your example and your means at their service. As a result of this Congress may our souls be set afire with the desire to love, to love in action and tonight, as we retire to our homes, each one of us must ask ourselves: What have I done for my brothers? What am I doing now? What is Christ asking me to do for him?

Christianity is entirely summed up in the word love: an ardent desire for the happiness of our brothers, not only the eternal happiness of heaven but also everything that will make them better and happier in this life, everything worthy of a son of God. Christianity claims as its own all that is just in the most progressive programs for the recovery of human rights, however audacious these may seem. At the same time it rejects other programs seeking to recover these rights because they ask far too little for our brothers, ignore the truth about human nature and sacrifice the spiritual goods that men need far more than material things, spiritual goods without which they cannot be happy, having been created for the infinite. Man needs bread but before all else he needs faith; he needs material things but even more he needs the ray of light that comes from above to refresh and direct his pilgrimage on earth. And this faith, this light only Christ and his Church can give him. When this light is understood, life acquires another meaning, work is loved, and one struggles with courage and above all with love. The love of Christ has caught fire in these hearts… They will speak of Jesus everywhere and will inflame other souls with the fire of love.