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In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:
Wednesday November 13, 2013
Heart As Wide As the World
The awareness of being part of the communion of saints makes our hearts as wide as the world. The love with which we love is not just our love; it is the love of Jesus and his saints living in us. When the Spirit of Jesus lives in our hearts, all who have lived their lives in that Spirit live there too. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents; our teachers and their teachers; our pastors and their pastors; our spiritual guides and theirs - all the holy men and women who form that long line of love through history - are part of our hearts, where the Spirit of Jesus chooses to dwell.
The communion of saints is not just a network of connections between people. It is first and foremost the community of our hearts.
My Commentary:
One of the classes I had at the current seminary I’ve been studying at was Biblical Theology. It basically was a hermeneutics class using Calvinism and Dispensationalism to read the Bible to which truly rubbed my Lutheran mind the wrong way… except for the concept of hearts turned or turning to God. Before I came back to God or those pre-conversion days; I was an existentialist teetering into agnosticism with a pinch of curiosity of the mystery of the Soul. I read perhaps way too much of Thomas Moore’s wonderful series around the soul such as ‘The care of the Soul,’ Soul Mates,’ ‘The Original Self ‘ and ‘The Re-enchantment of Everyday life.’ One could say his theology was creatively teetering over the perilous cliff of light-universalism plus Roman Catholicism… BUT I appreciated one aspect of his theology/philosophy that I am seeing from a different perspective than from those early days of my faith journey. I appreciated his honest pursuit of understanding the Soul.
What is that mystical place—The Soul? Is it technically or spiritually speaking the heart and personality of the person affected supernaturally by God? Is the Soul the seat of the Holy Spirit—the tabernacle of the internal Church of Christ planted as a seed—always germinating? Bearing fruit is the challenge of being “simul justus et peccator” or both saint and sinner. Developing a heart as wide as the world is a beautiful poetic thought Nouwen states as coming to grips with where we are in living into the life of GRACE. The affected heart turned to God in and through love is a new creation, new covenant of relationship—the process of sanctification or holiness. If we can truly affect the world with the Gospel perhaps we can become one great community of saints—sanctified citizens of the Kingdom of God.
God Bless Your Wednesdays!
Nicole Collins
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