Beginning Again: The Human Heart

I feel the need to begin again. Why? In Matthew 12:36, Jesus warns that "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak" (NAB).

This verse came to my mind when I recently read something else:

"the work ahead of us in these days can't possibly be just throwing words to the wind or someone developing whatever reflections might come to mind; instead, it will be the verification of whether faith brings with it this satisfaction, which enables us to live in any situation with our eyes fixed on Jesus, author and perfecter of faith"

("Faith: the Ultimate Expression of an Affection for Oneself").

I want blogging (like work, like family life, like going to the movies, etc) to be a verification of the reality that comes to me through the Church. I can think of no better place to begin again than with the human person, which is the first condition for coming together.

Dialogue is rooted in the human heart. To be clear, I don't mean the physical organ which cardiologists study. I also don't mean the sentimental notion of the heart as source of emotion. Walker Percy calls it the self; Luigi Giussani calls it the "I"; below is a summary of what heart means in Christian tradition.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) #2563:

The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw."

The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully.

The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

Although the CCC uses the term, heart, throughout its text, it doesn't define it expansively until the above passage in Section 4: "Christian Prayer."

My question to you, dear readers, is this notion of heart as we receive it from tradition adequate to the experience of everyday life? The purpose of this blog is to examine the "everyday life of a Christian." It is my hope that we can remain faithful to this purpose and not allow ourselves to be distracted by scholarly matters or abstract ideas divorced from this everyday life.

My answer is this: I have a good day, plenty of food, I make my quota of cold calls for the day, several prospects advance along the pipeline, I'm getting along with everybody at work, etc. — I have a good day when everything goes even better than can be expected. And yet, I want something else, something more. This suggest to me that there is a depth to me, a desire in me, that is beyond anything I can conceive of.

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photo is of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, wearing the habit emblazoned with the symbol he lived and died by: a heart beneath the cross. The red font for the word heart (just this post only!) is a memorial for Gerard of A Catholic Page for Lovers: he would have liked this blog. [I just had to remove it from the blockquote: alternating red and green type was just too garish].