It is not unusual in the realm of spirituality to talk about the heart. One can even say it is central to understanding who we are. Just as our physical bodies cannot last very long without the beating of our hearts, so we can conclude spiritually can’t last too long without attending to the heart. With this in mind, I thought it would be instructive to turn to some of my favorite authors to see how they describe the heart. I invite you to join me in hearing them speak about the heart.
We can no better than begin with some words from the Hebrew Bible---words that are planted deep in the Jewish soul. And all of us Christians should be very familiar with these words from Deuteronomy. In Judaism these words form what is known as the Shema---from the first word of the quotation, “hear.” The Deurteronomist says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (6:4-5) If we know the New Testament, we know that Jesus picks this up and uses it to instruct the early Christian community.
Following these words, we are love the Lord with all our hearts. I take it to mean we are to love God with our whole self---our entire being. This heart-language is about love, not about knowledge. Love stemming from the heart is not about doctrine; it is about relationship. Our hearts are to be on fire for the Holy One and we are encouraged to give our hearts away in relationship.
This is exactly what the late New Testament scholar, Marcus Borg, understood. Borg recognizes that “Jesus spoke frequently of the heart---of good hearts and bad hearts, hardened hearts and pure hearts….The heart was the self at its deepest center, a level “below” the mind, emotions, and will…and as the fundamental determinant of both being and behavior.” (108) There is much here we can unpack. The heart is our self at its deepest center. The heart is not a superficial thing. It is our core. It is not the same thing as our mind or our will. The heart certainly can include emotions, but the heart is more than emotions.
Borg resonates very well with my favorite monk of the twentieth century, the Trappist Thomas Merton. I know Merton’s writing fairly well and I can tell you he uses heart language in many different ways. But it is also central to his spirituality. In his little book, Contemplative Prayer, Merton acknowledges, the heart “refers to the deepest psychological ground of one’s personality, the inner sanctuary where self-awareness goes beyond the analytical reflection and opens out into metaphysical and theological confrontation with the Abyss of the unknown and yet present---one who is ‘more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.’” (33)
I like how Merton often deals with spirituality from psychological perspectives. For example, he says heart is the deepest psychological ground of our personality. In this sense heart refers to the “deep me;” it is another way of talking about the true self that Merton so often uses in his writings. Merton also opts for imagery from church buildings. The heart is an “inner sanctuary.” As we come to this inner sanctuary---come close to our heart---we become aware of and confront the God of the unknown. Interestingly, Merton uses language of the Abyss here. But in the same breath, Merton says this Abyss is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves!
Merton helps us know how the heart works. He counsels: “…begin by seeking to ‘find our heart,’ that is to sink into a deep awareness of the ground of our identity before God and in God. ‘Finding our heart’ and recovering this awareness of our inmost identity implies the recognition that our external, everyday self is to a great extent a mask and a fabrication. It is not our true self. And indeed our true self is not easy to find. It is hidden in the obscurity and ‘nothingness’ at the center where we are in direct dependence on God.” (CP 70)
Finally, I like the reference Merton uses about a wise heart. In his favorite book of mine, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Merton says, “To have a ‘wise heart,’ it seems to me, is to live centered on this dynamism and this secret hope—this hoped-for secret. It is the key to our life, but as long as we are alive we must see that we do not have this key: it is not at our disposal. Christ has it, in us, for us. We have this key in so far as we believe in Him, and are one in Him. So this is it: the ‘wise heart’ remains in hope and in contradiction, in sorrow and in joy, fixed on the secret and the ‘great deed’ which alone gives Christian life its true scope and dimensions!” (CGB, 212)
There is so much to unpack here and potentially analyze. But when we are talking about heart, perhaps the best thing to do is savor it and bask in it. The good news is we have a heart and we have heart. It is the core of who we are and the key to how we engage and interact with the Holy One. It is the seat of courage, the source of passion and the key to love.
Take heart…
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. ...
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