Diaries of a Motorcycle Bride

The Heart [Extracted from “Beloved”: Henri Nouwen in Conversation] September 15, 2010

Linked in with the idea of the beloved is the heart. As to the heart in the Bible, we hear of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened and Lydia’s heart in the Acts being opened, so there is again a link with choice. We can go one of two ways; our heart can close in or open out. It’s a fascinating concept isn’t it? Can you say a little bit about how you understand the heart?

Well, in the biblical understanding, heart is the centre of our being. It’s not a muscle, but a symbol for the very centre of our being. Now the beautiful thing about the heart is that the heart is the place we are mostly ourselves. It’s like the core of our being, it’s the spiritual centre of our being. Solitude and silence, for instance, are ways to get to the heart,because the heart is the place where God speaks to us, where we hear the voice who calls us the beloved. This is precisely in the most intimate place.

In the famous story, Elijah was standing in front of the cave. God was not in the storm, God was not in the fire and not in the earthquake, but God was in that soft little voice (1 Kings 19). That soft little voice we have to hear, speaks to the heart. Prayer and solitude are ways to listen to the voice that speaks to our heart, in the centre of our being. One of the most amazing things about that concept is that if you enter deeper and deeper into that place, you not only meet God there, but you meet the whole world there.

If you give your whole heart and your whole mind and your whole strength to God, then you discover your neighbour there. ‘Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:30-31). That means that in the total embrace of God’s love, that is where you find many of us. If I go into my heart and meet God there, I always meet the world there. When God speaks in my heart, my heart becomes as wide as the world. It becomes like the marketplace of the world.

A lot of people think about prayer or solitude as withdrawing from the world into a private space, but that’s not at all the case. The contemplative life, this mystical life, shows that the deeper you enter into the solitude and the deeper you come into the heart, the more in the world you are. That’s precisely the basis in the world. Therefore I’ve never personally believed in contemplation as filling up your batteries so you can go back into the world. I think of contemplation as precisely where you go into the world. Solitude and prayer bring you into a spiritual communion with the whole people.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of these big wagon-wheels. They have a hub with all these spokes, but quite often we remain on the rim of the wheel. Prayer is to go to the hub. That’s solitude, that’s the heart. Prayer is going to your heart, but it’s also going to the heart of the world and all the spokes get together right there. It is not that you lose contact, in fact you are more connected with people when you’re in the heart than when you run around on the edges.

Spiritually speaking, that is what intercessory prayer is all about. It is to enter into the heart of God and be there in communion not only with God, but also with humanity. My deepest conviction is that communion with God and solidarity with all of humanity always go together. You cannot live in communion with God without living in solidarity with people; it is essentially the same. That’s why every mystic is an activist in that sense, because mystical people are not people who sit there and contemplate. Teresa of Avila ran around founding one monastery after another. John of the Cross was a very active person, and Thomas Merton, a very busy guy.

With mystics and mysticism, the point is that when you come to the heart of God, you touch God’s communion with all people. You will know how you are being sent into the world. You are sent into the world and that’s what you have to do. I can sit here and say, ‘Should I go to Somalia, or to Bosnia?’ ‘Should I go to Florida to help with the storm or whatever?’ No, I have to sit here and stay here. Don’t try running around, because it is very clear I can’t.

This is my vocation. Then I have to ask, ‘How does God call me to something new?’ It might well be that that’s not always the case. It might be that something happens in the world that I’m called to respond to in a new way. I have to, but it has to come from the heart, it has to come from God. Otherwise it becomes a set-up for burn-out, because I’m doing it in order to prove something to myself or to the world, or do good, or do something well. Then I am going to be bitter and disappointed.