«MISERENTISSIMUS REDEMPTOR». - Opening of the encyclical by Pius XI (9 May 1928) on the duty of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (AAS, 20 [1928], pp. 165-78).
The Pope states that devotion to the Sacred Heart has two principal forms: consecration (the total offering of one’s very self and all one’s possessions to God) and reparation (atonement for the offenses committed against the Love that inheres in the Heart). Of the first, Pius XI recalls having treated in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), with which he established the feast of Christ the King as a complement to the consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart, made by Leo XIII in 1900 (cf. the encyclical Annum Sacrum of 1899). Of the duty of the second, the Pontiff points out, with a wealth of doctrine, the profound reasons grounded in the laws of justice and love, and concludes that all humanity must make reparation for sin and the offenses committed against God, in union with the one Mediator (solidarity with Christ): a) because of the request made by Jesus Himself in His revelations to St Margaret Mary, b) because of the repercussion of our acts of atonement upon what occurred in the agony of the Head and upon the Passion prolonged through the centuries in the Mystical Body, c) because of the present conditions of society, which seems to have conspired against the rights of God. The distinguished document concludes by exhorting all the faithful to cultivate the spirit of reparation, already fostered by various congregations and religious families.
This pious and learned encyclical, which marks a glorious stage in the centuries-old movement of devotion to the Sacred Heart, contains assertions and insights of particular interest for dogmatic theology: the intimate meaning or mutual relationship of consecration and reparation, the supernatural solidarity of men in Christ, the Church as the mystical prolongation of the Redeemer, the two moments of the Redemption (objective and subjective), the regal priesthood of all the faithful and their participation in the sacrifice of the Mass, and the spirit of goodwill proper to the baptized. On this last topic, Pius XI offered ample and profound developments in the subsequent encyclical Caritate Christi compulsi, issued on 3 May 1932 (AAS, 24 [1932], pp. 177-94).