Catholic Outlook Magazine | September Edition | Season of Creation | 2023 Issue

Looking Deeper
How is your heart?
STORY BR MARK O’CONNOR FMS
Spring means new life and hope all around us!
For as Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ exults:
And for all this,
nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness
deep down things.
But such ‘new creation’ can only really happen
for us, disciples of Jesus, if we allow ourselves to
develop a richer and deeper inner life of the Spirit.
For as the famous UN Diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld,
once put it:
The longest journey is the
journey inwards.
And so, as we pilgrims travel from the darkness of
winter to a new springtime, we are called to convert
from a “heart of stone” and replace it with a “heart of
flesh” and mercy.
No wonder, then, that it is reported that St Francis
de Sales, on meeting people in the streets
of his hometown, Geneva, would ask them
“How is your heart?”
That’s not a bad question for each of us to ask
ourselves, as we reflect and pray, in this season of
new life and hope.
Certainly, one is struck at times at how much
darkness, anger and resentment exists today in the
Church, even here in our Diocese of Parramatta.
That’s not a recipe for peace and joy in life. Some
people seem to ‘fear the light’ and prefer to wallow in
negativity and darkness.
Instead, each Christian disciple must look more
deeply into their own ‘diseased’ hearts. That’s why St
John Chrysostom tells all of us “Find the key to your
heart; you will see this key will also open the door of
the Kingdom.”
Sadly, one does still come across those who act
as if they believe the opposite! They are always
denouncing others who are the ‘enemy’. It seems
they are convinced that they alone possess the
‘truth’ and believe they are already ‘in’. Their mission
apparently, is to close doors and keep the ‘others’
out. Effectively they want to throw away the key!
Paradoxically, however, the central message of our
faith is that, like Jesus, we can only emerge into
new life, if we are willing to face our own personal
demons and die to our own egos.
Thomas Merton expresses all this movingly in The
Monastic Journey: “The Christ we find in ourselves
is not identified with what we vainly seek to admire
and idolise in ourselves – on the contrary, he has
identified himself with what we resent in ourselves,
for he has taken upon himself our wretchedness and
our misery, our poverty and our sins.
“We will never find peace if we listen to the voice of
our fatuous self-deception that tells us the conflict
has ceased to exist. We will find peace when we
can listen to the ‘death dance’ in our blood, not
only with equanimity but with exultation because
we hear within it the echoes of the victory of the
Risen Saviour.”
Yes, our God gifts us with new life. His Spirit graces
us especially when we honestly face our own
vulnerability and brokenness. This is the very heart of
the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth!
So, during this new Spring Season of Creation 2023,
let’s meditate on the words of the Brazilian bishop
and mystic Hélder Câmara to:
Accept surprises that upset
your plans, shatter your
dreams, give a completely
different turn to your day and
who knows? – to your life.
Leave the Father free himself to
weave the pattern of your days.
Br Mark O’Connor FMS is the Vicar for Communications in
the Diocese of Parramatta and the Editor of Catholic Outlook.
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