Don't follow your heart - guide your heart! (Mk 7,14-23)
"Don't follow your heart - guide your heart!" Once, these words, heard in a conversation, touched me profoundly. And today Jesus says: " From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly." How often we hear around us, especially in the media: follow the way of the heart. But is it enough? No! Good is not born of following any impulse, and each of us is bombarded with a thousand stimuli every day: directly or indirectly. Good requires prudence, requires discernment and reflection, because often the evil spirit comes in the form of the spirit of light. So, it is not enough just to "Follow the way of the heart". It sounds beautiful, but we also need reason.
And Jesus makes this clear when he confirms the commandment of love: " You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (cf. Lk 10:27). The heart is not enough! "More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?" - recalls the prophet Jeremiah (cf. Jer 17: 9). The Psalm reminds us of the ambiguity of the heart: " Sin directs the heart of the wicked man" (cf. Psalm 36: 2).
So, what to do? Give up our heart and its movements? No! To discern them and choose what lead to salvation, not those that seem good, but in the perspective of eternal life, distance us from it - these must be rejected. There is no other way but to listen to the heart's movements, discern them and follow those which we deem good in our conscience. The commandments - the Decalogue, the Church Commandments, the Catechism, and the teachings of the Church are also helpful in this process of discernment.
We must not follow our heart automatically. We must discern this voice - subject the voice of the heart to the voice of reason (I praise the Lord who gave me reason) and conscience, which often, when our emotions have calmed down, say clearly and clearly that they have a different opinion than our heart.
St. Ignatius Loyola called this process the ordering of disordered movements. It is nothing more than guiding our heart, taking responsibility for our life, for our specific actions. Love is not just a spontaneous impulse - love is a specific choice. Love is an intention, decision, and act in accordance with God's will. Often the heart may rebel against it. And the heart has the right to do so, but we have the right and duty to guide and manage our heart.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george