June  19,  2020

THE   HEART  OF  THE  MATTER

The heart of the matter is God. 

That’s why we’re here today – right now – on this feast of the Sacred Heart.

The heart of the matter is this. This is my creed:  God matters.

The heart of the matter is you – each of you – each of us matters. This is our creed.

That’s what the signs in the streets and in the protests are saying.

The heart of the matter is me.  Like you, I too, matter.

Creed that. Believe that. Keep completing that belief – that thought – that sentence.

This is what matters.

The heart of the matter is that God is incomplete without us.

Is that why God created up the idea of us?

We need to read that sign – and all the signs of the times…..

The heart of the matter is that we are incomplete without God and without each other – and God with us.

That’s the heart of the matter.

The heart of the matter is that there is more – still more – restless more. We’re only up to 5 to 15 billion years of existence – according to Carbon 14 dating tests.

In the sacred heart of the scriptures we find mention of the heart over and over again.

The heart – leb or forms of that root word – in Hebrew – but there are other words – each trying to get their stretching arms around the heart of the matter.

The heart – kardia in Greek – and other Greek words that matter: xenia, eros, agape, philia, philautia – but that last one is too self-centered.

The heart - cor  in Latin – is restless till it centers in on what matters – and what matters is  meaning – a meaning – that makes sense – but that’s impossible.  It takes a lifetime – the wanting of more and more  - the fire, the desire for better and better answers – so we’re never satisfied – we’re like a fly – flying around the kitchen – landing on the peanut butter jar – then the neck of the dog – then the cup cake – oh no!

The Heart of the Matter – a novel by Graham Green – we’re all Henry Scobie – turning pages and hearing about the search for answers in our relationships – love – intrigue and evil – trying to detect God – along with our flaws – and religious beliefs – opening up matter – like peeling an orange, a banana, a walnut.

The heart.  It’s the conscious talking thinking inner self in every person – the center, the cor, the control center that we can use to control our actions, words, choices, decisions, the inner holy place, our sacred heart, in the center of our chest, the seat of our passions, emotions, grief, joy, intellect,  the place of our memory, our  inner library and archives, stories, suitcases, trunks, duffel bags with collector’s items, - yes and this heart of ours can become messed up, fat, hard, hurting, messed up – clogged with blockages – and it’s incomplete – therefore it’s needy.

The heart – it’s needy – we know that – even when we forget it’s sacred.

The heart – it needs God – God needs our heart.

The heart – one day – it seems to be the ocean – vast – wide – still – wavy – roaring – with fish and life in millions of species and slippery things – and boats – with people – lots of people; the next day – the heart – it’s a desert – sand – tan dry sand – but there is oil underneath.

The heart of the matter is God.  Mary Oliver – the poet -  walked the woods – climbed trees in her mind – looked out into the waters. She wondered about “One Hundred White-Sided Dolphins on a Summer Day – that’s the beginning of just one of her poems  – or we see lilies rising and opening their white hands until they almost cover the black waters of the pond – clouds – her dog – her cat.  She gave her creed, her instructions for living a life: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” (Cf. page 105 in Devotions).

The heart of the matter is us.  Shakespeare told us this in both the Sonnet and the  “The Plays the Thing” that catches the conscience of both king and fool – and kids on their way to school.

Bonaventure, Thomas, Margaret Mary Alacoque talked about the heart…..

Leo XIII consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart in 1899 and then the world suffered billions of broken hearts and bodies big time in the wars of the 20^th century.

Jesus walked and watched the human heart in children when he saw them not knowing what song to sing in the marketplace, when he saw fishermen with empty nets, women at noontime wells, widows in temples, fathers missing sons, shepherds missing sheep, Joseph making yokes for oxen – whose necks were raw and bleeding and cut from yokes that were misfit.

The heart of the matter is that Jesus thought and then talked about what is going on in the human heart.

And only some of this is the Heart of the Matter.