The Heart ("The Human Heart")

THE HEART (THE HUMAN HEART)

Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34
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Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of the heart are the issues of life.
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The Heart is not only an abyss of Love; it is also an abyss of Mercy.
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True sight does not come by the limited vision of human eyes;
True sight is found in the depths of the human heart.
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The Heart, the metaphysical heart, the basis of all relationships, is what is deepest in each one of us. It is my heart that bonds itself to another heart; it leads us out of the restricted belonging of our inner self, which creates exclusion, to meet and love others just as they are. A little child is only heart; he/she thrives off relationships, he/she grows through relationships.
When he/she is in communion with someone he/she trusts, he/she is safe, he/she is someone, someone unique and important. He/She is thus empowered, for the rest of his/her life, to be open to others, and able to bring this sense of empowerment into their work. To work means to be energetic, strong, and active, cooperating with others. Communion means to be vulnerable and tender, it means opening one's heart and sharing one's hopes and pain, even all that is failure and brokenness in our lives. If my heart is broken, I can quickly feel crushed and fall into depression, unable to work. Or I may refuse all relationships and throw myself savagely into work.

If my heart is fulfilled, it will shine through my work. We've all seen the transforming power of love. The most hardened embittered person sees themselves and sees life in a new way when they fall in love; and when they know they are loved. It is very easy to recognize a man and/or woman who falls in love. Aggressive or depressive tendencies seem to disappear. They move toward a gentle openness; instead of protecting themselves behind barriers, they make themselves open and welcoming. A new freedom of kindness, and tenderness becomes evident. My point here is that a human being is more than the power or capacity to think and perform daily tasks. In essence there is a gentle person of love hidden in the child within each of us who are adults.

The heart is the place where we meet others, suffer and rejoice with them. It is the place where we can identify and be in solidarity with them. Whenever we love we are not alone. The heart is the place of our own "oneness" with others. The way of the heart implies a choice. We can choose to take this path and treat people as people and not just mindless machines.
(Example)... ("We can see a cook working in a hotel simply as a cook, "Or" we can look at that person with a heart; who has children and a wife or husband and who might be living a difficult painful relationship, and who is in need of understanding and kindness"). To treat each person as a person means that we are concerned for them, that we listen to them, and love them, and want them to become more whole, free, truthful, and responsible.

To speak about the human heart is not to speak of vaguely defined emotions, but to speak of the very core of our being. At the core of our heart, we all know we can be strengthened and rendered more truthful and more alive. Our hearts can become hard as stone or tender as flesh. We have to create situations where our hearts can be fortified and nourished. In this way, we can be more sensitive to others, to their needs, their cries, their inner pain, their tenderness, their needs of love, and their gifts of love.

Our hearts however; are never totally pure. People can cry out to be loved especially if as children that were not loved. There are married relationships that are loving "yet" unhealthy because they are a flight from truth and from responsibility. They are unhealthy because one is too frightened to challenge one's lover. These are signs of the immature heart. An immature heart can lead another person to depression and death. It is only once a heart has become mature in love that it can take the road of insecurity, putting its trust in God.

It is the "Heart" that can make wise decisions and has learned to discern and take risks that bring life. It can meet people inside and outside of the place of belonging. It can meet people who have been rejected or excluded. It is the heart that helps us to discover the common humanity that links us all.
That is even stronger than all that bonds us together as part of a specific group. The heart then, forgoes the need to control others. The free heart frees others. Heart-to-heart relationships where God is present are more important than the approbation of society or of a group.

Belonging to a group is important; it is the "earth" in which we grow. Sometimes however; we have to fore-go group approval and even accept rejection, if it should happen, in order to follow what the ancients called in Latin; "Scienta Cordis", the science of the heart, which gives inner strength to put truth, flowing from experience, over the need for approval.
The science of the heart permits us to be vulnerable with others, not to fear them, but listen to them, to see their beauty and value, to understand them in all theirs fears, needs, and hopes, even if that means tactfully challenging them if need be.

The science of the heart permits us to accept others just as they are, and to believe that they can grow to greater beauty and wisdom. the mature heart does not seek to impose faith.
The mature heart listens for what another's heart is called to be. It no longer judges or condemns. It is a heart of forgiveness. Such a heart is a compassionate heart that sees the presence of God in others. It lets itself be led by others into uncharted land. It is the heart that calls us to grow, to change, to evolve, and become more fully human.