Spring 2025 - St. Bernard's Magazine (1) - Flipbook - Page 14
Take Heart:
The Astonishing Love of the Sacred Heart
by Matthew Kuhner, Ph.D.
Our language is filled with ways of talking about the 'heart':
we "learn something by heart," we suffer "heartbreak," we
have "our heart in the right place." Clearly we are not
literally talking about the organ that pumps blood
throughout our body: we are using 'heart' in a symbolic
sense. For example, when we "take something to heart," we
are appreciating its significance deep within ourselves.
When we "get to the heart of the matter," we arrive at the
core of our concern. When we say that someone has "a
heart of gold," we mean that they are truly a charitable
person. Across all of these examples, our 'heart' seems to
symbolize our true self, our inner person, the core of our
existence, our affection, and our action. As Pope Francis
wrote in his recent encyclical, Dilexit nos, "it could be said,
then, that I am my heart, for my heart is what sets me apart,
shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion
with other people" (14).
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