[Ep 125: Friday follow-up]
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Yesterday we heard from Dietrich von Hildebrand that our spiritual heart (the one breathed into us) is the source of our true self and is also most centrally the place from which we love. Not only that, the heart is what gives value to how we love. What a cold and boring world it would be if we loved a pizza the same way we love a puppy the same way we love our best friend the same way we love a newborn baby the same way we love God and on and on.
Our hearts, however, are distorted and disoriented and disordered – so we don’t always value things as we ought – which is the only plausible explanation for TikTok.
Sometimes we desire things that really aren’t that desirable. Other times we get angry over things that aren’t worth anger, and cast a blind eye to things that should enrage us. Much of the time we agonize over the trivial and miss the monumental.
We have a heart condition.
So, what does an infinitely perfect and complete heart look like? Wouldn’t it be great if we had an owner’s manual?
It turns out we do. In fact, we have four (you saw that coming…).
The Gospels, as much as anything, are a revelation of Jesus’ Sacred Heart. What did He celebrate? When was He vulnerable? When was He bemused? What made Him angry? What did He desire? When did He show mercy? What made Him sorrowful?
The Gospel reading for today reveals what may be the greatest attribute of His Sacred Heart – that it is always reaching outward to each one of us, “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”
In the postscript we look at an event in the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola that illustrates how the life of Christ in the Gospels, the life of the Sacred Heart, heals and reveals our own heart.
We’ll close with this from Pope St. John Paul II, “In the Sacred Heart every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden. In that Divine Heart beats God’s infinite love for everyone, for each one of us individually.”
Praying you experience that infinite love, in a new way, for yourself today.
Steve and Karen Smith – Interior Life
- Get the book.
Postscript: St. Ignatius’ heart transplant.
Before becoming a priest, St. Ignatius of Loyola was a knight of great ambition. But a severe leg injury on the battlefield dashed his aspirations of worldly chivalry and glory. During his long convalescence he found himself bedridden and with seemingly endless spans of time on his hands. None of his preferred adventure novels were available for reading, leaving him only to his imagination of great feats in battle and winning the hand of a royal lady. There was, however, spiritual reading available, and in boredom he turned to the Bible and stories of the lives of the saints. Over time, the future saint noticed a pattern. His daydreams of knightly escapades were diverting in the present moment, but ultimately left him feeling dry, unsatisfied and empty. Whereas his readings of Christ and Saints left him feeling inspired and uplifted. This was the beginning of St. Ignatius’ spiritual awakening and the germination of his deep and powerful teaching on desolation, consolation and the discernment of spirits.
This episode of his life also illustrates our consideration of the heart. When we become attuned to it, our heart reveals our true self. Ignatius’ ambition for worldly feats of glory was a distortion of his heart’s true desire to be a warrior for Christ. When our heart is presented with what it truly desires, and when we take the time in solitude to listen and reflect, we are led to facets of our true self.