New heart, new creation

One objective of Lent is to prepare us for our new creation in Christ. Yes, we need to be made new, that is, to emerge from our state of sinfulness Christ, if not “ipse Christus,” Christ himself.

Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who became man to be the way, truth and life to us, is the very pattern and substance of our humanity. Remember that we have been made in the image and likeness of God, and adopted children of his.

To have a new heart, to be a new creation is the ideal we should strive to pursue. It requires both God's action, which is always done, and our correspondence, which depends on how we use our freedom.

Thus, we hear God saying, “My son, give me your heart.” (Prov 23,26) It's moving to hear God begging of us to give what is most precious to us, our heart. He does this because he does not impose himself on us. He respects our freedom, which is actually his gift to us, making us precisely his image and likeness.

And on our part, we should not be afraid to give it, knowing that what seems a loss to us by giving our heart to God would actually be a tremendous gain. Christ spoke much about this self-giving that actually enriches us rather than impoverishing us.

So, our attitude should sound like what is expressed in Psalm 50. “Create in me a new heart, O Lord.” If we really know who we are or how we stand before God who is everything to us, I suppose we cannot ask him in a tone other than this. We also need to beg him, to importune him, even if we know that as a good Father, he always gives.

This is simply the language of love into which we have to enter if we want to develop a relationship with God. What all this leads to is that we need to take care of our heart. We need to protect it and keep it always new with the newness that can only come from Christ, our savior and perfecter.

First, we need to be aware of the true nature and proper character of our heart. Nowadays, many caricatures are made of it, trivializing and distorting it along childish and frivolous categories.

The Catechism defines and describes our heart as “the seat of moral personality,” “the dwelling-place where I am, where I live,” “our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully,” “the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives,” etc.

Finally, the Catechism describes our heart as "the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation-it is the place of covenant." In short, it is where we meet God, where we hear his voice and get to know his will.

Obviously, this ideal definition and description of our heart is often marred by our own weaknesses and sins. We often ignore our heart, if not trample over it to allow the impulses of our wounded flesh and the sinful world to dominate us. And so, we make a wreck out of our own heart.

Thus, the need to purify and strengthen our heart. One of the beatitudes precisely talks about this. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And the Catechism comments: “Pure in heart' refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness.”

This is what we should be more aware of. How are we thinking, how are we using our will, how are we desiring, liking and loving? What usually happens is that we allow our mind and heart to just go anywhere they like or anywhere our wounded human condition directs them.

We often forget that we need to anchor and engage them with God always, whatever we may be thinking, planning, saying or doing. The effort to do that is what precisely would give us a new heart, making ourselves a new creation in Christ, the only mediator between God and us.

We need to leave behind our poor albeit falsely brilliant ideas of how our heart should be, or of how we can be forever youthful. We need to be with Christ to have the new heart, making ourselves a new creation that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

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