June 19, 2020
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 20th 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.
