Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Human Heart

  • Deep Within Our Heart

    Deep Within Our Heart

    February 12, 2025 – Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021225.cfm)

    The human heart, though in medical science, is made up of muscle and tissue responsible for pumping blood to flow in our entire body. Yet, the human heart since the ancient times is understood spiritually as the person’s inner core. The Holy Scriptures teach us that our human heart symbolizes our inner self, the totality of our person that includes our mind, spirit and emotions. It is in our heart that we too find our hopes and dreams, our desires and passions. And it is in our heart that we encounter God, who gives us the breath of life.

    Moreover, as Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel of Mark, from our heart we also shall find our selfish desires and wicked intentions from which our actions and words can bring harm, evil, and corruption to what surrounds us. This is something that the Lord wants us to realize today so that we may be able to see and discern better on what values, beliefs and spirit should we foster in our hearts.

    The Book of Genesis presents to us the second account of the creation story. In this account we are reminded how the Lord created the world and us humans, particularly. The Lord God being portrayed like a potter, formed us out of the clay and blew into us the “breath of life.” That breath indeed, gives us life and it comes from the Lord. That breath still remains with us, a reminder that God’s spirit is within us.

    In God’s divine wisdom, the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil were planted. The man was expected to exercise discernment, self-control and respect to what God has commanded. In that garden, the man was settled in order “to cultivate and care for it.” This expresses the creative power given to man, that certainly, we have the capacity to nurture and care what has been entrusted to us.

    Yet, when we also choose to separate from the grace of God and forget that we are indeed given the breath of life, evil begins to consume us. We shall become dissatisfied with what we have even when we have enough. We become entitled, ungrateful and self-centered as if we are the creator and the giver of life. As the heart distances from the grace of God, the more we become indifferent from others.

    This is what Jesus affirmed in today’s Gospel. Jesus said, “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”

    What makes us unclean, therefore, are not those from the outside but those from within our heart. Jesus particularly refutes the belief of the Pharisees and scribes who developed restrictions on what to eat and what not to eat. Every creature that has been made by God is good.

    It is rather that comes out from our heart is what would defile us and would bring corruption and evil around us. It is a call, then, for us to watch out on what we nurture and foster deep within our hearts.

    What kind of intentions and motivations do we have then? What desires and passions that fuel our heart? What thoughts and aspirations that have become important for us?

    As we bring ourselves to reflect on these matters, let us also remind ourselves that at the very beginning, God gave us the breath of life. Deep within us, God resides; with us, God recreates; and through us, God manifests the divine.

    Let us retrieve and reclaim that creative power of the Lord so that our hearts will rather be more attuned and at home with God’s presence. This may hopefully constantly transform our actions and words to become more like Jesus so that we too will be able to bring goodness and kindness into our homes and communities. Hinaut pa.

  • How to maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart

    How to maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart

    Advertisements

    July 24, 2020 – Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072420.cfm)

    Homily

    How recipient am I of God and of His invitations? How welcoming and nurturing is my heart for God?

    The parable of the sower speaks to us of the different attitudes of human hearts in welcoming and accepting God and God’s living word in us. This was portrayed on how the seeds fell into the different parts of the field.

    Certainly, from this parable, this tell us too that we are God’s field. As a field where the seeds are planted, God desires that we become fruitful by allowing what God has planted in us to grow.

    As God’s field, how do we make ourselves a rich soil then, good for planting and growing? How do we also maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart?

    As in real planting, the soil should be filled with what is natural and organic, with real soil. When our field is filled with rocks, plastics and dangerous chemicals then it would not be good for plants to grow. We have to take away the rocks and plastics that may hinder the growth of the seeds, and the dangerous chemicals that may poison the plants.

    Thus, our heart can also be filled with our pretensions, our masks and our self-serving attitudes that serve rocks and plastics in the field that will hinder our faith to grow and mature. Our heart can also be filled with anxieties, excessive attachments to things, uncontrollable desires and addictions. These surely are dangerous chemicals that will poison our hearts. These lead us away from God and away from others and even away from our true selves.

    For us to have a welcoming and nurturing heart, we need to empty ourselves from our insecurities and anger, from hate and aggression. Without these, then we can be filled with love, with forgiveness, with faith and hope, with compassion and mercy, with tenderness and peace.

    Moreover, we can only accommodate God and others when we are not filled with ourselves. Yes, when we are filled with ourselves, with our arrogance and pride, with our bitterness and guilt, then, we won’t be able to welcome and give space for God and for his invitations to grow and bear fruit in our hearts. In the same way, we will not be able to welcome others to take part in our life.

    Thus, the invitation for us today is to seek understanding and wisdom from God that we may be able to recognize the way God is leading us today. To seek understanding will help us to take away at least two poisonous tendencies of our heart.

    First, is our tendency to accept what we only like to believe. This is a tendency that only seeks comfort and does not want to be challenged. Such tendency in us will make us dismissive of the Word of God that gives discomfort.

    Second, is our tendency to believe to what is only beneficial for the sake of our personal interest. This tendency expresses aggression when confronted with the truth. Such tendency will also make us narrow-minded because it is fixed to what is only good for our sake.

    However, such attitudes of the heart make us stagnant. This is not what God wants us. God desires always that we become individuals and a community that bears fruit for others and that we will be able to share and give life.

    Therefore, to seek understanding from God is to constantly challenge our hearts and confront our selfish desires. To be able to maintain a rich soil then, is to receive the word of God organically, without any color from our selfish intentions and self-serving interests. In this way, we could make our heart welcoming and nurturing, not for our sake, but for our community. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR