The Shape of My Heart
Last week on our diocesan priest retreat, our director suggested to us that it would be interesting to be able to take the time one Sunday to hover over each of the parishes we serve in a helicopter and to watch the flow of parishioners as they leave their houses and make their way to the church grounds. He wanted to emphasize the fact that our weekly celebration of the liturgy begins when people get up and start to prepare for the Eucharist. It continues as the members of the parish begin to make their way to our common sanctuary and is only beginning to come into focus when we begin the official prayers of the liturgy.
As he continued, he described our church grounds as the heart of the community. From the helicopter above we would be able to see the people as they leave their neighborhoods and travel the smaller roads towards our common place of worship. It would look almost like the capillaries of one’s body. As more and more Christians made their way onto the larger roads they would resemble larger veins with even more people making their way to the heart of the community. Within a short time they would all arrive, entering the heart, where God’s people would be purified and strengthened, ready once again to be sent back into the world. The view from the air would allow one to see the same people who slowly made their way to the church grounds to once again be dispersed into the places of everyday life, now carrying God’s life giving energy to all.
I very much appreciate his image of the heart that receives blood in need of cleansing and sends out the nutrients that give life. It is an image that should describe all of our Christian communities. We arrive each Sunday as sinners in need of healing. We are fed with the Word of God and the Eucharist and then take what we have received into the wider community. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus continue to challenge and purify us as we continue on the path of conversion together.
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