Page 5 - Demo

in a basic mood ( Stimmung)%u201d. [12] That is where the heart comes in, since it %u201chouses the states ofmind and functions as a %u2018keeper of the state of mind%u2019. The %u2018heart%u2019 listens in a non-metaphoric wayto %u2018the silent voice%u2019 of being, allowing itself to be tempered and determined by it%u201d. [13]THE HEART UNITES THE FRAGMENTS17. At the same time, the heart makes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship notshaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism. Twomonads may approach one another, but they will never truly connect. A society dominated bynarcissism and self-centredness will increasingly become %u201cheartless%u201d. This will lead in turn to the%u201closs of desire%u201d, since as other persons disappear from the horizon we find ourselves trappedwithin walls of our own making, no longer capable of healthy relationships. [14] As a result, wealso become incapable of openness to God. As Heidegger puts it, to be open to the divine weneed to build a %u201cguest house%u201d. [15]18. We see, then, that in the heart of each person there is a mysterious connection between selfknowledge and openness to others, between the encounter with one%u2019s personal uniqueness andthe willingness to give oneself to others. We become ourselves only to the extent that we acquirethe ability to acknowledge others, while only those who can acknowledge and accept themselvesare then able to encounter others.19. The heart is also capable of unifying and harmonizing our personal history, which may seemhopelessly fragmented, yet is the place where everything can make sense. The Gospel tells usthis in speaking of Our Lady, who saw things with the heart. She was able to dialogue with thethings she experienced by pondering them in her heart, treasuring their memory and viewing themin a greater perspective. The best expression of how the heart thinks is found in the two passagesin Saint Luke%u2019s Gospel that speak to us of how Mary %u201ctreasured (synet%u00e9rei) all these things andpondered (symb%u00e1llousa) them in her heart%u201d (cf. Lk 2:19 and 51). The Greek verb symb%u00e1llein,%u201cponder%u201d, evokes the image of putting two things together (%u201csymbols%u201d) in one%u2019s mind and reflectingon them, in a dialogue with oneself. In Luke 2:51, the verb used is diet%u00e9rei, which has the sense of%u201ckeep%u201d. What Mary %u201ckept%u201d was not only her memory of what she had seen and heard, but alsothose aspects of it that she did not yet understand; these nonetheless remained present and alivein her memory, waiting to be %u201cput together%u201d in her heart.20. In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to saveour humanity. No algorithm will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of usfeel, whatever our age, and wherever we live, when we recall how we first used a fork to seal theedges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grandmothers to make at home. It was a momentof culinary apprenticeship, somewhere between child-play and adulthood, when we first feltresponsible for working and helping one another. Along with the fork, I could also mentionthousands of other little things that are a precious part of everyone%u2019s life: a smile we elicited by5