Just a brief little blog really. Following the making of the Sacred Heart of Naur over the period of Lent has served to illuminate an aspect of Lent which I had never really grasped before. And yet Lent is really and so obviously all about the heart. From the start to the finish it is all about the heart and how we have to change / open / soften our heart. Readings at mass draw extensively on passages from the Old and New Testament which explore our relationship to our heart, and how God sees us in terms of our heart. This Sunday, (4th Sunday of Lent) for example, I read this at Mass from the book of Samuel: ‘ God does not see as man sees: man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart’. Lent is a season in which we try to purify our hearts. It is about being open to the transforming power of God’s love. The more I reflect on the message of Lent, the more do I understand Lent not as a period of gloom and darkness, but quite the opposite, it is actually a period of opening ourselves – our very core – to fire and light. As I contemplate Lent through the Sacred Heart then it seems to take me back to the Transfiguration. It reminds me that Teilhard saw the Sacred Heart in terms of the transfiguration. In Lent we have to open our hearts and let that light in, and our darkness out. We have to stop living by appearances and remind ourselves that God sees our heart. And we have to ask what does He see? A ‘golden glow’ or a dark, hard, cold place? Lent should be a time when we turn not to Mount Tabor, but to the Sacred Heart to find that fire and that light.
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