The heart, starting point of spirituality

Lent that began with the observance of Ash Wednesday is a forty day season. For some of us, it is about giving up something, participating in a series of spiritual disciplines, such as fasting, prayer and almsgiving; while for some businesses it is the promotion of seafoods, especially fish. Lent is a time of reflection, beginning with the heart, the starting point of spirituality.

The prominence of the heart is found in the Ash Wednesday Collect:

“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord …” ( Book of Common Prayer).

The prophet Ezekiel wrote, “A new heart I will give you, and a new Spirit I will put within you ; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36.26).

The heart, as Master Nicolaus had aptly observed in the late 12th century, was the primary “spiritual member” of the body. As such, it was the seat of all emotions. “If indeed from the heart alone rise anger or passion, fear, terror, and sadness; if from it alone spring shame, delight, and joy, why should I say more?” wrote Andreas de Laguna in 1535.

The Ash Wednesday Collect is a petition to God the Father to assist us in performing the good work of fasting, and specifically of engaging in the inward fast, without which the outward fast cannot be a good work in God’s sight.

REMEMBRANCE

The Collect begins with remembrance of particular aspects of the nature and character of God the Father – “You hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.” Thus as we open in prayer, we celebrate the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Creator ( “And God saw that it was good” Genesis 1) and the God of mercy and forgiveness (Exodus 34.6).’

Then we come to the petition based upon what we know of the nature and character of God: “Create and make in us new and contrite hearts” (Ezekiel 36.26), “that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness” (Matthew 26.28), through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The inward aspect of fasting is the mortification of sin found in the heart. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of the heart as “devious above all else; it is perverse...” (17.9a). Our Lord also said, “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person ...”, (Matthew 15.19-20a). Through careful and devout self-examination and humble confession the creation or making of a new heart (that is, a cleansed and renewed heart wherein are godly principles). “ For the temperate mind can conquer the drives of the emotions and quench the flames of frenzied desires; it can overthrow bodily agonies even when they are extreme, and by nobility of reason spurn all domination by the emotions” (4 Maccabees 3.17-18).

THEMATIC DIMENSIONS

These thematic dimensions of the inward aspect of the heart that comes under self-examination during Lent:

1. Cognitive – knows, thinks, sees, is wise (or foolish, darkened, ‘veil upon heart’), understands, speaks, meditates, devises, imagines, reasons, is illumined.

2. Desire, interest – desires, wishes for, lusts, envies, covets, is enticed, turns to or away from God, inclines.

3. Intention - intends, is set on things, is ‘with’ another, things put into the heart.

4. Emotional

(a) Love: cares, feels compassion, forgives, is ravished, is joined in love, is knit unto another;

(b) Feels positive affect: is glad, cheers, trusts, has courage, humble, rejoices, delights, sings or makes music;

(c) Feels negative affect: hates, despises, is ‘hot’, feels wrath, is vengeful.

5. Good – The heart may be:-

(a) Pure or whole: transformed, circumcised, perfect, sincere, upright, true, whole, good, sound, strengthened, tender; constant;

(b) Holy: full of godliness, Christ dwells in, Christ’s peace rules, receives the Spirit of the Son; established in holiness or by advised counsel, fixed in trust.

6. Hardness– may be hard, stony, stubborn, calloused, unrepentant, full of deceit, heavy.

(a) Wickedness: The heart may commit adultery; store evil; be perverse, proud.

While the outward aspect of fasting can be done in our own strength and willpower – and can therefore lead to weight loss, better cholesterol readings, lower blood pressure, and so on – the inward aspect, though intimately related to our desiring, is dependent upon the activity of the Holy Spirit in us to energise and to make worthy before God our mortification and vivification.

The Christian desires above all else ‘perfect remission and forgiveness’ of sins and to gain this from the God of all mercy; and one only can do so when one is being led by the Holy Spirit.

‘Worthily’ is a word that is often avoided, but here it emphasizes that our self-examination, our sense of sorrow for sins, our penitence for sins and our looking unto the Lord for relief must be in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ to be counted worthy before his Father. Thus our dependence on the presence and grace of the Holy Spirit to bring that worthiness into our offering of this good work of fasting to the Lord our God. May we continue to offer acceptable Lenten acts of love and sacrifice.

Dudley McLean is executive director of Asociación de Debate Xaymaca (AdebateX), which convenes debating in Spanish for high schools. He is a graduate of Codrington College, UWI (Cave Hill). Send feedback to dm15094@gmail.com.