{"id":67383,"date":"2025-05-23T20:52:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T01:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=67383"},"modified":"2025-05-27T07:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T12:08:07","slug":"the-importance-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/the-importance-of-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter One of Dilexit Nos<\/em><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This is the second in a series of reflections by Nathaniel Marx<\/a> on the final encyclical letter of Pope Francis, <\/em>Dilexit Nos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by naaman frenkel<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Symbol of the Heart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Symbolism<\/em> is the heart of Pope Francis\u2019s teaching about the heart in Dilexit Nos<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The symbol of the heart has often been used to express the love of Jesus Christ. Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today. (DN 2<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

People today question the meaningfulness of the heart because they question the importance of symbols. This is obvious from journalism\u2019s daily use of \u201csymbolic\u201d to describe words and actions that make no real change to the state of affairs in the world. By the end of chapter one, however, Dilexit Nos<\/em> will claim that the only<\/em> way the world can change is if individuals and communities \u201creturn to the heart,\u201d precisely as the organ of symbolism and the symbol of organic unity (DN 28\u201329<\/a>). How and why does Francis reinvigorate the symbol of the heart so insistently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Symbol of the Whole<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Francis, the symbol of the heart epitomizes two fundamental liturgical concepts: sacramentality<\/em> and communion<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sacramentality<\/em> of the heart consists in it being the part of the body that signifies the whole person. By coordinating the \u201cfragments\u201d of understanding, desire, intention, and action, the heart alone can effectively integrate one\u2019s personal history and make life meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This profound core, present in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity. Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling place of love in all its spiritual, psychic, and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved. (DN 21<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the \u201cdwelling place of love,\u201d the heart is the organ of communion<\/em>\u2014communion of every kind and in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Heart Thinks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although communion does not begin with one\u2019s own efforts at love, it may be described in the first instance as communion with oneself. This personal integrity is the effect of the heart\u2019s symbolic reflection in contemplative, interior prayer. In a remarkable exegesis of Luke 2:19<\/a> and 2:51<\/a>\u2014containing one of the best definitions of symbol<\/em> to appear in any papal document\u2014Francis models the heart\u2019s symbolic activity on the Blessed Mother\u2019s inward \u201cpondering\u201d and \u201ctreasuring\u201d of moments in her child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best expression of how the heart thinks is found in the two passages in Saint Luke\u2019s Gospel that speak to us of how Mary \u201ctreasured (synet\u00e9rei<\/em>) all these things and pondered (symb\u00e1llousa<\/em>) them in her heart\u201d (cf. Lk 2:19<\/a> and 51<\/a>). The Greek verb symb\u00e1llein<\/em>, \u201cponder,\u201d evokes the image of putting two things together (\u201csymbols\u201d) in one\u2019s mind and reflecting on them, in a dialogue with oneself. In Luke 2:51<\/a>, the verb used is diet\u00e9rei<\/em>, which has the sense of \u201ckeep.\u201d What Mary \u201ckept\u201d was not only her memory of what she had seen and heard, but also those aspects of it that she did not yet understand; these nonetheless remained present and alive in her memory, waiting to be \u201cput together\u201d in her heart. (DN 19<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Because of \u201chow the heart thinks,\u201d it is \u201ccapable of unifying and harmonizing our personal history, which may seem hopelessly fragmented\u201d (DN 19<\/a>). The struggle to make sense of ourselves is not uniquely modern, as anyone who has read Augustine\u2019s Confessions<\/em> can confirm. Still, there is a modern malaise for which Francis prescribes a \u201creturn to the heart\u201d (DN 9\u201310<\/a>). The late pope described the problem at greater length in his 2022 letter on liturgical formation, Desiderio Desideravi<\/a><\/em>. \u201cModern people\u2014not in all cultures to the same degree\u2014have lost the capacity to engage with symbolic action.\u201d The inheritance bequeathed by modern individualism and postmodern fragmentation is \u201can abstract spiritualism which contradicts human nature itself, for a human person is an incarnate spirit and therefore as such capable of symbolic action and of symbolic understanding\u201d (DD 27\u201328<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heartlessness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both Desiderio Desideravi<\/em> and Dilexit Nos<\/em> turn to Romano Guardini for further diagnosis of our symbolic insensitivity and ineptitude. Francis shares profound admiration for Guardini with his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI. There is already reason to believe<\/a> that Leo XIV, the first Augustinian pope, is similarly influenced by this pioneer of liturgical renewal, whose interpretation of Augustine\u2019s conversion<\/a> focuses on the inward quest for self-knowledge and wholeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Desiderio Desideravi<\/em>, Francis shares Guardini\u2019s assessment of \u201c\u2018the first task of the work of liturgical formation: man must become once again capable of symbols\u2019\u201d (DD 44<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The task is not easy because modern man has become illiterate, no longer able to read symbols; it is almost as if their existence is not even suspected. This happens also with the symbol of our body. Our body is a symbol because it is an intimate union of soul and body; it is the visibility of the spiritual soul in the corporeal order; and in this consists human uniqueness, the specificity of the person irreducible to any other form of living being. Our openness to the transcendent, to God, is constitutive of us. Not to recognize this leads us inevitably not only to a not knowing of God but also to not knowing ourselves. (DD 44<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Dilexit Nos<\/em>, Francis adopts Guardini\u2019s designation for the disease that enervates intimacy and estranges us from God and from ourselves: heartlessness<\/em>. Guardini illustrates the terminal form of heartlessness with a character from Dostoevsky\u2019s Demons<\/em>, Nikolai Stavrogin. Despite his magnetic charisma, Stavrogin never truly draws close to anyone because he \u201chas no heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFor only the heart creates intimacy, true closeness between two persons. Only the heart is able to welcome and offer hospitality. Intimacy is the proper activity and the domain of the heart. Stavrogin is always infinitely distant, even from himself, because a man can enter into himself only with the heart, not with the mind. It is not in a man\u2019s power to enter into his own interiority with the mind. Hence, if the heart is not alive, man remains a stranger to himself.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup> (DN 12<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I and Thou<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Intimacy and identity both depend on the heart\u2019s symbolizing activity, which puts \u201cI\u201d and \u201cThou\u201d together in friendship. Human friendship helps constitute us as persons, but \u201conly the Lord offers to treat each one of us as a \u2018Thou always and forever\u2019\u201d (DN 25<\/a>). Only in the secret dialogue of the heart with God can we put away all self-deception and false pretense. For this reason, \u201cthe heart is also the locus of sincerity\u201d and \u201cthe part of us that is neither appearance nor illusion, but is instead authentic, real, entirely \u2018who we are\u2019\u201d (DN 5<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the same token, the symbolic realism of the heart \u201cmakes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship not shaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism\u201d (DN 17<\/a>). As with the individual, society\u2019s need for the heart becomes painfully evident in its absence. Francis cites the spread of wars between countries and partisan power struggles within them. He urges us to \u201csee and listen to the elderly women\u2014from both sides\u2014who are at the mercy of these devastating conflicts,\u201d exiled from their homes and mourning lost grandchildren. \u201cTo see these elderly women weep, and not feel that this is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has grown heartless\u201d (DN 22<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of the world\u2019s indifference to elderly women and their tears, why prioritize liturgical formation of the kind called for in Desiderio Desideravi<\/em>? \u201cTo engage with symbolic action\u201d and thereby \u201crecover the capacity to live completely the liturgical action\u201d was, according to Francis, \u201cthe objective of the Council\u2019s reform\u201d (DD 27<\/a>). This sounds like an esoteric goal, compared to recovering the capacity to \u201cweep with those who weep\u201d (Rom 12:15<\/a>; Sir 7:34<\/a>). Yet a reinvigoration of liturgical symbolism appears insignificant only if we confuse significance with intellectual mastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heart Speaks to Heart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dilexit Nos<\/em> insists that the symbols of Christian faith do not merely call for interpretation. The heart of Christ\u2014\u201cthe symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us\u201d (DN 32<\/a>)\u2014seeks from us not only understanding, but affection, reverence, and obedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice. This could easily remain on the level of a kind of self-reliant moralism. Hearing and tasting the Lord, and paying him due honor, however, is a matter of the heart. Only the heart is capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience before the Lord. (DN 27<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The heart is the organ of symbolism and the symbol of communion because it is the dwelling place of love. It is the place where knowledge becomes love, according to the testimony of great intellectuals like Bonaventure and John Henry Newman. Pope Francis invokes Newman\u2019s famous motto, Cor ad cor loquitur<\/em>, \u201csince, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart\u201d (DN 26<\/a>). Here, also, the sacrament of the Eucharist makes a rare but crucial appearance in Dilexit Nos<\/em>. \u201cIt was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace\u201d (DN 26<\/a>). If the heart of Jesus is the symbol of his human and divine love for us, then the Eucharist that flows from his pierced heart is the sacrament that symbolizes (puts together) God\u2019s loving gift and our loving response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning to the Sacred Heart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Symbols have consequences. This remains true even if liturgical symbols and the symbol of the Sacred Heart seem inconsequential in a \u201csuffering world\u201d that \u201cpresses forward despite wars, socio-economic disparities and uses of technology that threaten our humanity\u201d (DN 31<\/a>). The late pope avoided self-absorbed devotionalism as much as self-reliant moralism. \u201cTaking the heart seriously,\u201d he writes, \u201chas consequences for society as a whole\u201d (DN 29<\/a>). Francis will unpack those social consequences in chapter five of Dilexit Nos<\/em>. Before we can work any \u201csocial miracle,\u201d however, we must return to the heart. It is not a turn away from our neighbors, yet it remains a turn inward to where each heart encounters the Sacred Heart as \u201cthe unifying principle of all reality,\u201d for Christ\u2019s heart is all love (DN 31<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let us turn, then, to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfillment to which humanity can aspire. There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love. (DN 30<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Romano Guardini, Religi\u00f6se Gestalten in Dostojewskijs Werk<\/em> (Paderborn, 1989), pp. 236ff. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NATHANIEL MARX \u2014 Symbolism is the heart of Pope Francis\u2019s teaching about the heart in Dilexit Nos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":67388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[19,3446,3496,28,2224,4028,3086,3687,31],"tags":[4033,3021,814],"class_list":["post-67383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mass","category-liturgical-catechesis","category-liturgical-theology","category-pope-benedict-xvi","category-pope-francis","category-pope-leo-xiv","category-popular-piety","category-prayer","category-sacramental-theology","tag-dilexit-nos","tag-pope-francis","tag-sacred-heart"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Importance of the Heart - 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