By David Richo, Associate, San Francisco
“What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or see any injury or slight sorrow in any being. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. Such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.” — Saint Isaac of Ninevah, a seventh century orthodox bishop, theologian and monk.
The ‘heart’ in this quotation is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Teilhard de Chardin helped us see that Heart as the heart of the universe. It is also what our own heart looks like when we live a life of love for all beings.
Thus, the Sacred Heart opens up three main avenues of meaning: image, reality, calling.
The Sacred Heart is an image with a symbolic meaning, that is, universal love, the heartfulness of God.
It is a phenomenon, something real now and eternally, the heart of the risen Christ at the center of all that is.
It is a calling, an invitation to us to open the sacred heart we received in baptism when we came alive in Christ. We honor our calling when our commitment is to live out the Sermon on the Mount. That is the heart that is fed by the Eucharist, by our community with one another, and by grace.
In effect, any spiritually alive image has the same three qualities. The Pieta’ shows Mary at the foot of the cross holding the body of her unjustly killed son.
It is an image that symbolizes how all the killings, disappearances, wars, and wrongs happening today, are held by an earth mother in tears about how unjustly we humans treat one another.
It is a reality; mothers the world over receive and hold human injustice with grief.
It is a calling to us to hold all suffering beings with love and compassion, impelled by a faith that a new way of living can come about: “Behold, I make all things new.”