A meditation on the Heart of God and the Heart of Man
by
Padre Natanaele Thanner, ORC
St. Augustine said: “All of us without question want to live happily, and in the whole human race
there is no one who does not assent to this proposition.” Where does this
desire for happiness in every human heart come from? From God Himself. “God
has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One Who alone can fulfill it.” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 1718).
Those who seek happiness, seek God,
and those who seek God, seek happiness. “Seeking Thee, My God, I am seeking
happiness. I will seek Thee so that my soul may live. My body lives from my
soul and my soul lives from Thee.” (Saint Augustine).
Yes, God is the life of our soul,
which is the principal of life for our body. A body without a soul is dead. And what of a soul without God?
By asserting that our soul, being
spiritual, is immortal, we are saying that, once created by God, it will never
cease to exist, because God created it from eternal love and would never want
to annihilate it. But the true life of the soul is God; in lacking union with
God, man is “dead” , even if he lives yet upon the earth.
Whilst writing this a personal
experience came to mind.
Some years ago, when I was studying
in Rome, one day, on my way to the University, I came upon a demonstration in
Via Nazionale. Among the demonstrators,
there was a man with two women, all of them dressed in black and flaunting
extravagant hairstyles. What struck me
very strongly was the expression on their faces: they were like the walking
dead. Oh yes, God is the life of man and devoid of union with God, man is
dead, even if he exercises all the vital activities of a human being.
God though, calls
us to participate in His life, in His beatitude. For this the “beatitudes” are
the centre of Our Lord’s preaching: “Blest are the poor in spirit…(Mat.
5,3-12). We must never forget that God calls us to His beatitude! This call is
directed to each one of us personally, but also to the Church as a whole, as a
community of faith and love. Furthermore,
let us not forget, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Already here on earth the Christian life shares, by
faith, in the blessed company of angels and men united to God” (Catechism,
336). This is the final destination: Angels
and men perfectly united and blessed in God.
Padre Nathanaele Thanner, ORC
(Ordo Canonicorum
Regularium Sanctae Crucis ORC)
Rector : Opus Sanctorum Angelorum
Source: Lettera
Circolare dell’Opus Sanctorum Angelorum; translation: Contributor Francesca
Romana
Roman Catholic hymn to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus
When
life away is flying,
And earth's false glare is done;
Still, Sacred heart, in dying
I'll say I'm all Thine own.
Refrain
While ages course along,
Blest be with the loudest song
The Sacred Heart of Jesus
By ev'ry heart and tongue!
