Page 7 - Demo
P. 7
orderly progression of the meditations. Something unexpected and hitherto unknown starts tospeak in our heart, breaking through our superficial knowledge and calling it into question. This isthe start of a new process of %u201csetting our life in order%u201d, beginning with the heart. It is not aboutintellectual concepts that need to be put into practice in our daily lives, as if affectivity and practicewere merely the effects of %u2013 and dependent upon %u2013 the data of knowledge. [16]25. Where the thinking of the philosopher halts, there the heart of the believer presses on in loveand adoration, in pleading for forgiveness and in willingness to serve in whatever place the Lordallows us to choose, in order to follow in his footsteps. At that point, we realize that in God%u2019s eyeswe are a %u201cThou%u201d, and for that very reason we can be an %u201cI%u201d. Indeed, only the Lord offers to treateach one of us as a %u201cThou%u201d, always and forever. Accepting his friendship is a matter of the heart; itis what constitutes us as persons in the fullest sense of that word.26. Saint Bonaventure tells us that in the end we should not pray for light, but for %u201craging fire%u201d. [17][7] He teaches that, %u201cfaith is in the intellect, in such a way as to provoke affection. In this sense, forexample, the knowledge that Christ died for us does not remain knowledge, but necessarilybecomes affection, love%u201d. [18] [8] Along the same lines, Saint John Henry Newman took as hismotto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves usby speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart. This realization led him, the distinguishedintellectual, to recognize that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not fromhis reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive andpresent. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable ofsetting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace: %u201cO mostSacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatestfor us still%u2026 I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with mymost subdued, most resolved will. O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receiveThee, to eat and drink Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode within me, O make myheart beat with Thy Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hardand cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither theevents of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thylove and Thy fear it may have peace%u201d. [19]27. Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in theunderstanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice. This could easilyremain on the level of a kind of self-reliant moralism. Hearing and tasting the Lord, and paying himdue honour, however, is a matter of the heart. Only the heart is capable of setting our otherpowers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience beforethe Lord.THE WORLD CAN CHANGE, BEGINNING WITH THE HEART7