Heartspace was founded in 2008 on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and each year marks its founding anniversary on this feast of its titular Patron. Last June 7, at the 16th anniversary commemoration of Heartspace, founder Rev. Fr. Pachomius Ma. San Juan OSB delivered the following homily:

What do you and I do when we meet someone who is unloveable, hurts us through an unforgivable act, or really is deserving of our judgment and condemnation? I wonder if today’s feast even makes sense in today’s world of enemies, haters, bashers, cursers and abusers. I am not saying we do not need the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We need it more than ever.

A struggle and a choice

Have you ever ended a relationship or refused to see or speak with someone because he or she betrayed your confidence, spoke critically of you or did not do what you thought should be done? From whom are you withholding forgiveness these days? When have you condemned or made a judgement about someone else’s life and then enjoyed sharing the dirt with another? In what ways have you hit back with thoughts, words or fists?

Those and a thousand others like them are the real struggles life holds before us. I know what those struggles are like and I will bet you do too. We have all been there. The world is complex. Relationships are difficult. Life is fragile. That is why we need today’s feast and that is why it matters. Our Lord’s words anywhere in the Gospels are intended to stir thought, trouble sleep and provide some wider perspective. He is not telling us what to see; He is teaching us how to see. He is not giving us the answers; He is inviting us to ask better questions.

We are always negotiating the distance between Jesus’ teaching and the reality of our day-to-day life. In each of our lives there are contradictions between who we say we are and who we show ourselves to be, between our beliefs and our actions, between our life in Christ and our life in the world. How are we holding that tension and which side is winning?

“Every day we make one of two choices. We either choose to be large or we choose to be small.”

Every day we make one of two choices. We either choose to be large or we choose to be small. And what we choose affects others. If we choose to be small we will keep score, act with violence, seek retribution, make our relationships conditioned. If we choose to be large it will be in recognition that something other than security, protection, reciprocity, balancing the books is animating our lives. It will call us to be less fearful, less suspicious, less anxious, less needy. It changes our attitudes toward others. It creates space for others.

The pain we don’t see

One of the things I know is that the pain of the world is great. Everyone has a story of pain hidden behind the life he or she shows to the world. I can never really know what is going on in the life of another. Maybe that is why Jesus tells us not to judge or condemn but to be forgiving. Maybe that is why Jesus tells us to love our enemies, do good tho those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who abuse us. Maybe that is why we are not to return violence for violence. All because we do not really know the other’s story. That not knowing is why we must continue to pay attention to our behavior and choose to be large.

“We may not be able to diminish or take away the pain of the world, but neither do we have to add to it.”

We may not be able to diminish or take away the pain of the world, but neither do we have to add to it. That is the bottom line for us in today’s feast. Chances are there is someone in each of our lives who is hanging on by a thread: a family member, a friend, a colleague, a stranger, someone who is a fixture in our life or someone who is just passing through. Sometimes we know they are hanging on by a thread, other times we do not. They are in need of love, mercy and forgiveness; prayer, blessing and compassion; generosity, the benefit of the doubt, an open heart and open hands. We all know what that is like, we have been there. Let us not be the scissors that cuts their thread. Rather, let our hearts be always spacious to catch whomsoever falls in it.