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28. It is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconcilingdiffering minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters.Reconciliation and peace are also born of the heart. The heart of Christ is %u201cecstasy%u201d, openness, giftand encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, andto build up in this world God%u2019s kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart ofChrist, are capable of working this social miracle.29. Taking the heart seriously, then, has consequences for society as a whole. The SecondVatican Council teaches that, %u201cevery one of us needs a change of heart; we must set our gaze onthe whole world and look to those tasks we can all perform together in order to bring about thebetterment of our race%u201d. [20] For %u201cthe imbalances affecting the world today are in fact a symptom ofa deeper imbalance rooted in the human heart%u201d. [21] In pondering the tragedies afflicting our world,the Council urges us to return to the heart. It explains that human beings %u201cby their interior life,transcend the entire material universe; they experience this deep interiority when they enter intotheir own heart, where God, who probes the heart, awaits them, and where they decide their owndestiny in the sight of God%u201d. [22]30. This in no way implies an undue reliance on our own abilities. Let us never forget that ourhearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded. They possess an ontological dignity, yet at thesame time must seek an ever more dignified life. [23] The Second Vatican Council points out that%u201cthe ferment of the Gospel has aroused and continues to arouse in human hearts anunquenchable thirst for human dignity%u201d. [24] Yet to live in accordance with this dignity, it is notenough to know the Gospel or to carry out mechanically its demands. We need the help of God%u2019slove. Let us turn, then, to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace ofdivine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire. There, inthat heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love.31. In the end, that Sacred Heart is the unifying principle of all reality, since %u201cChrist is the heart ofthe world, and the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection is the centre of history, which,because of him, is a history of salvation%u201d. [25] All creatures %u201care moving forward with us andthrough us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness wherethe risen Christ embraces and illumines all things%u201d. [26] In the presence of the heart of Christ, Ionce more ask the Lord to have mercy on this suffering world in which he chose to dwell as one ofus. May he pour out the treasures of his light and love, so that our world, which presses forwarddespite wars, socio-economic disparities and uses of technology that threaten our humanity, mayregain the most important and necessary thing of all: its heart.CHAPTER TWOACTIONS AND WORDS OF LOVE8