Heart And Soul (in Sync?)

                                                                   HEART And SOUL

                                                                        (in Sync?)

Eileen Renders

We have heard many songs connecting the heart and soul; however, they differ in many ways. Perhaps we have thought about how they are so entwined, yet we rarely include our minds. The heart and the mind are tangible, yet our soul is not. The Soul never dies, it lives forever, Jesus told us that is the soul’s destiny. Where the soul finds its forever home depends wholly on how we lived our lives, the choices we have made.

We have been taught, and have learned that the soul must be pure when our days on earth are over, as it was after we received the sacrament of Baptism as a baby to remove Original sin. Therefore, keeping the soul pure requires of us to make good choices in life, make reparation for our sins, and sincerely promise not to sin again in the Confessional before we ever want our soul to be in front of God awaiting our destiny. We can choose, or not choose to follow God’s Commandments. Through prayer, the Sacraments, and our gratitude for God’s many blessings, we can accomplish this.

When we contemplate our hearts, we are naturally drawn to the heart of Christ as our example of what our hearts should contain. God’s Sacred Heart explodes like fire with Love and Mercy for His creatures. We know God through His love, compassion, and mercy forgives us our sins when we are sorry for our sins, and sincerely want to do better in our lives and our choices. Would not this goal align our hearts with our souls? 

Many of us are compassionate, forgive our offenders, and continue to love our friends and family, regardless of our disagreements. Still, many may become aware that something is amiss within our hearts. What could that be? We realize this to be so, as we are conscious of feeling discontent and a sense of restlessness within our souls. Our connection is just not right, but why?

Spending time alone with God in prayer and meditation, and in that quiet time, with our Creator, He assists us in recognizing what needs to be corrected. We love Him, we do our best to follow His Commandments, we recognize, over the years, His unending love and forgiveness. Sadly, we come to recognize that although God forgives us our sins, we fear death, we fear going toward the Light that shines on all of us.

What can it be that He, our creator loves us, and forgives our sins, that we still fear leaving the world and moving toward the Light? Some of us have lived a life that we regret, made many mistakes, or grew up in a family that was ripped apart by divorce. Maybe we never felt we were appreciated, or validated. We may have been hurt or humiliated, teased or laughed at in School. The list of emotional injuries has a long list of possibilities.

The crucial point that I make here, is we may love God and trust Him, but fear death because we do not feel worthy of His love, and though He forgives us, we cannot forgive ourselves. We feel unworthy of His endless love. It is likely that many of us feel that in the final judgment, God will say, “I realize that you have tried to live by My Commandments and frequent the sacraments, however you have failed in trusting and believing that if I forgive you, you also must forgive yourself.”

Surely, that will make a huge difference in our ability to trust, to forgive ourselves. Too, we may fear forgiving ourselves because that might be “letting our guard down, and continuing to sin.” The resolution to this dilemma is to forge ahead, pray every day that we trust in God’s forgiveness, and live each day with a sincere desire to serve God, because He is all good.