Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart
On Ash Wednesday, the Prophet Joel exhorted us with these words: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:12-13).
“… return to me with your whole heart …”
In his latest encyclical, “Dilexit Nos,” Pope Francis says, “We were made to love and to be loved.” He points out that the heart is our very core — where the body, mind, and soul all come together to be the person God has created us to be. We are here to do something unique in God’s plan. When we take time to listen to what God is saying in our heart, we can discover how God’s love can become visible through us and shared with everyone. If we devalue the heart, we also devalue what it means to speak from the heart, to act with the heart, to cultivate and heal the heart.
The symbol of the heart has often been used over the centuries to express the love of Jesus Christ. The Sacred Heart of Jesus pumps the Precious Blood of Jesus through his physical body and also through his Mystical Body (us). We are to use our unique gifts for the good of the whole body. None of us exists in isolation, responsible only for our own salvation.
The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few moral obligations like fasting, giving alms, and more prayer time, but to soften our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the Holy Spirit at work, to experience our inner thirst and hunger for communion with God.
The greatest gift we can ask for is union with God. The most marvelous quest we can embark upon is to know Jesus, our Lord and Savior. The most wonderful door we can knock upon is the door of Jesus’ heart.
Actually, it’s a mutual knocking, mutual seeking, like lovers who seek to be heart-to-heart with their beloved. While we are knocking on the heart of Jesus, Jesus is knocking on our hearts, asking to come in. As we celebrate the Easter Triduum, may we fling open widely the doors of our hearts and invite Jesus into the innermost core of our being. God wishes to place hopes and dreams in your heart.
Fr. Ron Will, C.PP.S.
Provincial Councilor