UNDERSTANDING CHRIST'S HEART
Words are important,
not because of themselves, but because of the things for which they stand. They
are consequently important in proportion to those things—the greater the thing,
the greater must be our care in using the word. To know the exact meaning of a
word is not the exclusive concern of the scholar. Everyone is interested in the
right meaning of words—when those words stand for things he considers
important: the doctor does not confuse infectious with contagious;
the biologist distinguishes between congenital and hereditary,
the informed Catholic between infallible and impeccable. It is
only right then that, if we wish to have a true devotion to the Sacred Heart,
we should try to know the meaning of the word heart. We need, however,
to remember that such a word, dealing with human affairs, has not the same
fixity of meaning as triangle or other purely scientific terms. For the
world with which science deals remains always the same, while "human"
terms describe things and conditions in a human world of thought, feeling and
wishing which is constantly changing. Human terms often gather to themselves a
wealth of meaning, as the word democracy has done in our own day.
The Word "Heart" in Scripture and Liturgy
Probably no single
word has been so enriched in meaning by usage as the word "heart".
Even in Scripture (where it is a key word) it has not one but very many
meanings. This multiplicity will result not in confusion but in greater fullness
of suggestion and connotation, if we are consciously aware of it. We cannot
hope to clear up the meaning of the word perfectly, because it contains that
profoundest of natural mysteries—the mystery of free will. Yet an examination
of the word will be helpful, since its meanings call attention to the main
points of a true devotion to the Sacred Heart.
The most
"material" sense in which the word is used is the 'physical interior'
of anything; thus the Book of Exodus (XV.8.) speaks of the 'heart of the sea',
and Christ (Matt. XII.40.) of the 'heart of the earth'. This meaning is closely
allied to the purely literal sense of the physical heart in the human body;
this purely literal sense is, however, rather rare in Scripture, as the word
usually denotes the heart as the centre of emotion and desire. In its commonest
meaning, the word denotes our inner world of thought, wish and feeling
considered as a single whole. "The Lord knoweth the secrets of the
heart." (Ps. XLIII.22.) "Mary pondered all these things in her
heart." (Luke II.19.) Sometimes the emphasis falls on the intellectual
part of this inner world, sometimes on the affective or volitional part. 'The
heart of the righteous shall ponder what to answer.' (Prov. XV.28.) "Give
to thy servant an understanding heart." (3 Kings III.9.) "Neither
hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for
them who love Him." (I Cor. II. 9.) Here the emphasis is on the
intellectual part of man; the following illustrate the affective part:
"Lust not after her beauty in thy heart." (Prov. VI.25.) "He
shall give thee the desires of thy heart." (Ps. XXXVI.4.) "The Lord
is nigh unto the contrite of heart." (Ps. XXXIII. 19.)
From this meaning of
the inner world of wish and thought, the word easily comes to mean habitual
disposition of mind: 'A merry heart is a good medicine.' (Prov. XVII.22.)
'Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty.' (Ibid. XVIII.12.) "I am
meek and humble of heart." (Matt. XI.29.) In this sense the word may
denote the natural fickleness of human disposition or the need of the heart to
be guarded and strengthened by God. "There are many devices in a man's
heart, but the counsel of the Lord shall stand." (Prov. XIX.21.) "The
king's heart is in the hands of the Lord as are the courses of water." (Prov.
XXI.1.) "I will put my laws in their heart." (Jer. XXXI.33; Hebr.
VIII.10.)
As the heart is the
seat of affection and wish, the word often denotes the inclination to manifest
exteriorly the inner thoughts, feelings and desires. "Out of the heart come
forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts." (Matt. XV.19.)
"The heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness." (Prov. XII.23.)
In the liturgy (even
apart from the Psalms) the word occurs frequently. Its commonest meaning is the
inner world of thought, wishing and emotion as a single whole. Thus in the
collect of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, the three elements are blended: "O
God who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy
Spirit, grant that in the same Spirit we may be always truly wise and ever
rejoice in His consolation." If it had not been for so long embedded in
the liturgy, we should be surprised at the phrase: "instruct the
hearts", for the word we would more usually employ today would be
"mind". We ask God to enlighten our heart, because we wish to have
not a merely speculative or theoretical knowledge, but a highly practical
knowledge that will begin to issue immediately in Christian conduct, and the
heart indicates the emotions and the will as well as the powers of understanding.
As a matter of fact, in this simple phrase from the prayer, we have a practical
summary of a very fundamental theological truth: that the only knowledge,
speculative or practical, which is meritorious in God's sight and helpful to
our salvation is a knowledge which is accompanied by love in the heart.
In the secret of the
same Mass, we ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse our heart—to remove the obstacles
which stand in the way of effective love; in the postcommunion, we beg Him to
make our heart fruitful—to show forth in action the riches and knowledge with
which God has endowed us.
It is with much the
same purpose that the prayers at Prime quote from the Psalm (L.12): "A
clean heart create in me, O God." And in the litany prayers, we seek those
holy desires by which we may devote ourselves wholly to keeping the
commandments of God with a clean heart and a chaste body.
While the direct
purpose of the liturgy is not to teach psychology, still some important
psychological truths can be drawn from the liturgical prayers, psychological
truths that can help us to elicit something of the full meaning of the
"Heart" of Jesus, and help us to practise that devotion in a really
salutary way. The liturgy is divine doctrine in the form of prayer, that is, in
the form of the actual practice of the Christian virtues, especially the
virtues of faith, hope and charity which make up the essence of the Christian
life. It follows that the liturgy considers man's mental apparatus, not in
relation to abstract principles, but in relation to the actual working of the
mind, the actual exercise of the virtues. In this way, the real
distinction between intellect and will is not indeed denied, but frequently
left out of account, since in any deliberate act, intellect, will and emotion
normally act together as one.
One of the great
psychological truths we find in the liturgy is that God exists and operates
within the very innermost recesses of the human heart. He is present to every
being by His essence and power; He is present in a particular way to living
things since these have the power of moving themselves; He is present in a
still more particular way to rational beings since these have the power within
themselves of determining their own conduct. He is present in a unique way to
rational beings who possess grace, for this grace is really theirs, and it is
also a sharing in the inner life of the Most Holy Trinity. By faith, hope and
charity, God really dwells and actually acts within the heart of man—his inner
world of thought, will and emotion is turned by God into a sanctuary from which
God seeks to reign over the whole of man.
And however feeble
and inadequate the word "seeks" here may be, it calls attention to
this mystery of free will that lies in the heart of man. For to rational beings
alone does God give the power of resisting His will. By creating a being who
can love Him, God creates a being who can forever refuse to bend his will to
the will of God; by creating the possibility of love, God creates the
possibility of sin. Human nature in the person of Adam sinned; human nature in
the person of Christ is restored to love, to the possibility of perfect and
unending love. This restoration implies an act of infinite love on the part of
God; it implies an act of total surrender to God of the heart of man.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart."
(Matt. XXII.37.) Nothing less than total surrender will suffice, for our whole
nature must be transformed by grace, and it will be transformed only in
proportion as it is all handed over to God by an act of the heart. We cannot
make our surrender to God total or perfect at any one moment—for, even though
we might be quite innocent at a given moment (e.g., after gaining a plenary
indulgence), our heart is yet, in this world, unstable. What we must strive
after at each moment is to make our surrender, our love, ever more and more
perfect. It is by such striving that we unite ourselves more intimately to the
Sacred Heart; for the Heart of Christ never knew any condition except that of
full surrender to the will of God, full love for God, and "of his fullness
we have all received." (John I.16.)
The heart of man is
then that by which man controls himself, that by which he is most under the
control of infinite love, and that by which God establishes His rights over the
whole man, and over the whole race. The heart is the meeting place of all the
divine graces given to man. Whatever is given to man is given to his heart:
'Son, give me thy heart, let thy eyes keep my commandments.' (Prov. III.1,
XXIII.26.) This is as much as to say: you are in the keeping of your heart; let
your heart be in my keeping; you will then be wholly in my keeping; then 'thou
shalt love the Lord with thy whole heart.' So devotion to Christ's Heart is never
complete at any one moment, but by its very nature it strives to become
complete.
"Love therefore
is the fulfilling of the law." (Rom. XIII.10.) Love fulfils the law
because the other virtues are the means by which love establishes dominion over
the whole man. Love is the queen of the virtues, because they exist that
they may be always ready and poised to do the bidding of love. Love calls the
other virtues—faith, hope and the moral virtues—into play as they are needed to
express and exercise love for God. Wherever true virtue is being exercised,
there God is at work, but God using a special instrument—the humanity, the
Heart of Jesus, which is the symbol and the cause of all the effects produced
in man by divine love. The Heart of Jesus is the centre in which all human
hearts are attached to God—attached in so far as they respond to His appeal for
love.
