We have two great celebrations upon us – the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Friday) and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saturday).
And this brings our attention to “the heart.”
Jesus and Mary’s hearts reveal all we need to know about our brining our heart to its full potential. That’s what we look at in this week’s Pearls episode.
Before moving to the hearts of Jesus and Mary, we start with some (heart friendly) food for thought – principally from the great Catholic philosopher, Dietrich von Hildebrand.
First, we note that the human heart has gone through some major pendulum swings. Coming out of the Middle Ages the heart, to the extent that it was associated with emotions and passions, was relegated to second class status – taking a back seat to our intellect and will.
Nowadays the pendulum has swung 180 degrees, particularly in the secular world, where it’s all about feelings. And so there has been a pushback – treating feelings like potato salad gone bad – we hear, “facts don’t care about your feelings,” and there is loathing of “sentimentalism.”
This isn’t without good reason – the abuse of feelings has been … well … abusive.
But all this swinging back and forth is missing the mark of what our emotions, passions and feelings – our heart – is meant to be.
For von Hildebrand the heart, more so than the intellect and will, it is the seat of love, and thus it is also the source of our true self.
And that is what we’ll continue to look into in our follow-up posts.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life