God-Centered Heart

Yesterday, I posted about kneeling. When I have enough time to research the theology associated with kneeling, I will try and do a "Part II" post. Until then, a question is rumbling in my heart, which needs no research only the courage to discuss it.

A lot of comments I have received since starting this blog have been written in a context that somehow insinuates or assumes that I am speaking from some authoritative position. I want to state for the record that is not the case. I did not start this blog as some sort of teaching "platform", nor do I want it to be some attempt to CONVINCE people into thinking about the faith the way that I do, or that my view is the best, or even correct, nor do I want people to read my blog thinking that I have spent hours and years pondering and researching these issues. I started it, because I wanted to further my faith, ask questions that spin in my mind, and to hopefully help others in their quest for the truth as well.

This gets back to my post from yesterday. I was talking about "what" we do at a certain part of the Mass, and I touched on the "Why" as well. I am a big believer in the "WHY." The answer to "WHY?" anything in the faith should have one answer: God. If it doesn't, we are more than likely answering the question incorrectly. (Please no reductio ad absurdum). So then, we should ask ourselves WHY do we do... WHAT we do, at Mass, in our prayer life, and also ask that same question on all things we do in life. If the answer isn't God, we are most likely off course, or better have a REALLY, REALLY good reason why the answer is not: GOD.

There is a contemporary Christian song, by the group Plumb that is called "God-Shaped Hole" that seems to really fit this feeling I have inside of me. The lyrics are:

Every point of view has another angle

And every angle has its merit

But it all comes down to faith

Thats the way I see it

You can say that love is not divine and

You can say that life is not eternal

"All we have is now"

But I don't believe it

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us

And the restless soul is searching

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us

And it's a void only he can fill

Does the world seem gray with empty longing

Wearing every shade of cynical

And do you ever feel that

There is something missing?

That's my point of view...

It seems that this is the case. St. Augustine once said: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." If this is the case, then all of what we do should rest in God and be in-step with him. That means that if we are kneeling at Mass, kneeling for Communion, and kneeling at the side of our bed at night for prayer it should be for God, directed at God, and must resonate in our hearts that it is from God. If not... is our heart truly centered on God? Seems like an easy and honest pursuit though right? Focus on God, center on Him, do HIS will - Rinse, Repeat.

Well, here comes the twist...

What if this pursuit was done in a way where it brought the SPOTLIGHT on you? What if it meant in your heart that you  kneeled for communion, wore a chapel veil, prayed before every meal, said the Rosary EVERY night at 7:00pm, or some other facet of the faith that brought attention to YOU? Not that your goal was this attention, but what if it was a by-product of your God Centered Heart? Now what? As it has been said, many times before, it takes outstanding courage to be a faithful Catholic.

What if our "point of view" was that everything was about our Faith and our God? (This is not an argument for relativism). What if we truly believed that everything that we do is for God and therefore he should be our number one? This would mean that much of what we do, would be very different from what most people do. What if we took a weekly Calendar and the first thing we filled in was our faith obligations and necessities? What if we started every day with prayer at our desk, prayer at lunch, and before we "clocked out" for the night we said a prayer? Then work would become about God.

What if every time we got in or on our vehicles we said a prayer, for safe travel and for the fact that whatever our destination that it would be for the greater glory of God? It would turn almost everything we "do" and "endeavour" into something FOR GOD. What if every time we turned on the radio, TV, or got on our computers we said a quick prayer, that all that we spent our time on would bring us closer to God? Not in a passive, "Dear God, please work your Trinitarian MAGIC on me, and while I watch this episode of Bikini Fashion Models on Location in the Seychelles that you would some how bring me closer to your heart" way either. What if we really took the time and effort to focus our entire day on God? 

We long for this... we really do. The reason the devil is so seductive is not because of what he promises in the end, but what he promises today. You see, our end, if it be with Satan, is not pretty... in fact it is the most horrible existence possible. So how then does he have an allure over us? He does it with the present. He does it with the here and now. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You see, he tricks us into believing that one nibble here, one sin there, a lie over here, and eventually the denial of God's will seem like no big deal to us. Think about infidelity... what do we hear people say, "It was a one time thing... it was never meant to get that far." Of course not... how many people go into marriage saying, "I can't wait to the day when I am so selfish, hurt, neglected, ignored, abused that I feel the need to deny the person I swore to love forever and crush their heart, my heart, and God's heart all in one lust-filled action." I would say the number is pretty low.

So just like any puzzle or project, we must start building this heart and filling in this God-Centered heart, one piece at a time. We must focus on the end result and realize that the work that it takes to get us there is worth it. It is hard for us as humans to realize that Heaven and God are worth the "effort." Let's not lie to ourselves... sin is appealing. The devil makes it that way, but it deforms our heart. So we must keep the pieces in place, so that the deformity doesn't occur and so that the God-centered hole in our heart can be properly filled by God.

Don't misread this... I am no champion of this cause, in fact just in writing it I came up with a lot of this during the production of this post. This is more aspirational than experiential ... meaning, it is more theory than practice. I do hope to implement some of this in my life... but as I said, it is quite courageous to be authentically Catholic in our world... and unfortunately, I often fall short.