Bodies with Heart Part II

So, after all that, what about broken hearts? " ...a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (RSVA; -Psalm 51:17). Ven. Fulton Sheen said that "sometimes the only way the Good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them". I for one have an uncontrollable, broken heart. All of us do, ever since the Fall happened. One minute we are on a seemingly everlasting high, the next we are plunged into the depths of eternal sorrow. Some of us have more frequent and wider-ranging mood swings than others, to the point of ingrained habits of aberration called mental illness, but all of us are blown about like so many grains of sand in the wind on some level. It's not something we can deal with on our own; the impressions we get from outside of us and the suggestions of thoughts within us are too great to handle by our own power, in our fragile bodies. If we think we can just learn to master our hearts, we are mistaken - our bodies, too, get away from us all eventually. God is the Master of our hearts, our bodies, our whole being; He alone can give us the remedy we need. Even as much as our own efforts can actually come to have beneficial results, in reality, it is all by His provision for these things to actually work out. It is all we can do, and must do, to offer our hearts in unity with His Heart.

Many people are suffering now. Times are bleak. Many people ask what the point is; they really want to know what the hope is. Many claw out their insides seeking some kind of compass or guidepost or totem for inspiration, a reason for fathomless reality in the shallowest human shell: a broken heart soon becomes an empty one, having lost all its lifeblood. God's great wisdom and delight in man was to place infinite yearning in a finite heart; it was man's great sin to distrust that God would fulfill this and proudly try to do so himself. It is only God's Heart that fills the void of the torturous human heart. When time is rough, we tend to ask, "Where is God?" I bet He thinks that's a ridiculous question. He's right where we left Him - His Heart is where we left It aside!

Think what happens when we do not regard the Beauty of this Body and Its Adorable Sacred Heart, if we do not sacrifice ourselves in that Temple, burning on the Altar of that Heart: Sin is an aberration of the heart, and the spirit of the age is one of sins of the body. Why abortion; why contraception? Because of disregard for the body of the child and over-regard for the body of the self! Why masturbation and pornography? Because of the disregard of the sanctity of others' bodies and the over-regard for one's own body! Why the abuses in the Mass - because we have disregarded the Body of God, and overly regarded our own senses! And if we disregard His Body in the Sacrament, how can we hope to persevere as His Body the Church?

Maybe our life is nothing but a cross. What was Christ's? All His Life, from the manger to the crucifix to the tabernacle where He remains today in Body and Heart has been an immolation of Love. Maybe we are in constant temptation, ceaseless, without end in sight, in our minds, in our eyes, in our hearts. Christian life is war against three things: the world, the devil, and the flesh (our own) - God's Body, His Flesh, will bring us victory over ours; God's Heart will bring ours Peace. Maybe, then, we are exactly where our Lord wills us to be; He only gives what is best for us. Amidst the torment of the roiling human heart, give yourself over to Him - it is a continual motion of self-giving, daily as is His. Our life on this earth is to be an unceasing Spiritual Communion, punctuated by physical, Sacramental Communions - in Heaven, these will both be one and everlasting, and our hearts will beat entwined with His forever, as Lover and Beloved, one Body.