It’s been on my mind recently to write about “the heart” as it applies to how it is used in the bible. In Hebrew the word is “leb,” and it’s obviously onomatopoeic, the word sounding like a heart beat. It is used very often, and is even used in the Roman Catholic mass “Lift up your hearts” In a way I understood what it meant before, but I think studying Hebrew helped me understand it better.
In practice, it is used whenever the bible authors are referring to the internal environment of a person. There’s a Hebrew word for “thinking,” but it’s more used to tell others what your opinion is on the matter, or to describe what it appears someone else’s understanding of a situation is. The typical use of it is for a person to say something, but then say that what they said was “in the heart,” to say that wasn’t said out loud. So it is more of a marker of the internal environment of a person, and in particular what they are thinking, or what they thought before.
So in the mass, when the priest says “lift up your hearts,” it means, have your internal environment pay attention to God. Of course, there’s more to this, for example with the symbolism of the heart and such, but this is the bare literal meaning of what is said. It seems simple enough, but there are a lot of modern songs, prayers, etc. that do not use this correctly. I’ll spare you a lot of examples, but when you start listening to what a lot of songs or prayers actually say, you will realize this occurs a lot.
I think that God does not just want us to be there for mass, but to “actively participate.” However, this does not mean we have to say every word or sing every song. Rather, mass should be an occasion where we meditate on God, His Truth, and His mysteries. The words of the mass we hear, we should spend time thinking about, and how that relates to our lives. Of course, this shouldn’t be a torture, and we shouldn’t feel as though we are forced. God has an interest in teaching us what He wants to say to us, and so it shouldn’t be too hard. The first though, is that we make a commitment to be faithful to God, and persist in believing and following Him, even though it is hard, or we suffer because of it. This is how we show we are faithful servants of His.
So let us learn to understand our hearts, and grow in knowledge to grow closer to God, and serve Him better.
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