Welcome
to the first of three, short reflections concerning the Sacred Heart.
I’d
like to begin by recalling why the Sacred Heart of Jesus – and when I speak of
the Heart of Christ, I also infer the Heart of Mary for the two Hearts are as
one – why it’s of such importance by sharing some words by the Orthodox
theologian, Archbishop. Kalistos Ware:
‘The
heart, it has been said, is the primary organ of our being, the point of
convergence between mind and matter, the centre alike of our physical constitution
and our psychic and spiritual structure. Since the heart has this twofold aspect, at
once visible and invisible, prayer of the heart is prayer of body as well as
soul: only if it includes the body can it be truly prayer of the whole person.
A human being, in the biblical view, is a psychosomatic totality — not a soul
imprisoned in a body and seeking to escape, but an integral unity of the two.
The body is not just an obstacle to be overcome, a lump of matter to be
ignored, but it has a positive part to play in the spiritual life and it is
endowed with energies that can be harnessed for the work of prayer.’
Recently,
I came across a small book called, ‘The Sacred Heart of the World’, written by
David Richo and published in 2007. Two
years before, he writes, he had received the graces needed to vow to make a
contribution to devotion to the Sacred Heart: this book is the consequence. In reading it I’ve realised I’d found the
book I would like to have written! David
is a psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher and retreat leader in California and
his book does what it says on the cover – restores mystical devotion to our spiritual
life – so I’d like to use these four sessions to share some of his insights.
He
begins by inviting us to consider the universal context in which the Sacred
Heart needs to be set. Right at the
beginning he writes: (p.2): … This
clearly reveals the way the Sacred Heart isn’t just a rather saccharine,
individualistic devotion, but concerns the essence of our humanity. (p.3) … It also reveals, of course, that the
nature of God is love: (p.6, 7, 9)
It
was inside us because God breathed his Spirit into Adams nostrils – the heart
of God is a Trinity of Love which flows out and enfolds all things: O then, let
my heart awake to your breath within me!
There, where mind sinks into the depths of God, there are rivers of love
flowing from the Heart! ‘In Sufi
tradition’, writes Richo, ‘The heart is eternity, light, and divinity. It is the centre of consciousness and the
vehicle by which God sees us. God
breathing life into Adam means that a heart was given to him.’ (p.14) Later, in sharing some words of Jung, he says
that ‘The heart mirrors the psyche itself, which includes both our personal
experience and the heritage of wisdom of the entire human collective that keeps
stirring in all of us.’ (p.16)
Finally,
he writes of the way that the Sacred Heart is a universal symbol which is in
everybody's soul. Yet it’s not only a symbol,
a word meaning password in Greek, it’s also a passport to participation in what
it signifies. The sacramental nature of
the Sacred Heart contains the power to awaken spiritual truths in us and to
give us an appetite for it. The Heart of
Jesus is indeed the centre of the mystical body of humanity and the
universe.
To
end this session, I’ll share words from a Sioux Indian which he quotes; ‘the
heart is a sanctuary at the centre of which is a little space wherein the Great
Spirit abides.’ Hearing them, I was
immediately remined of something Thomas Merton wrote in Conjectures of a Guilty
Bystander’:
‘At
the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and
by illusion, a point of truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which
is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is
inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own
will. This little point of nothingness
and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, His name written in
us… It is like a pure diamond, blazing
with the invisible light of heaven. It
is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see those billions of points
of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the
darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
I have no program for this seeing; is it only given. But the Gate
of Heaven is everywhere.’
