101st Meditation on God the Father
“I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead” (Ezek 36:26).
What is at stake is the heart of man! To whom does it belong?
Our Heavenly Father wants to dwell in our heart and make it receptive to His love, which He unceasingly offers us. The new heart that He gives us is one that is no longer hardened, that no longer closes itself off to love, that opens itself to the needs of all, that no longer tolerates the coldness that it still discovers in itself and allows the love of God to melt the layer of ice that often surrounds it.
This great gift that God gives us-a new heart and a new spirit, which is the Holy Spirit Himself-makes us “born again” people (cf. Jn 3:7). We become people who are governed by love and truth. The new heart will not allow us to be separated from God’s love without immediately returning to Him. The new spirit infused in us will keep a watchful eye on our paths, not tolerating any deviation from God’s straight path.
In this new heart the love of God has awakened. Thus, it occupies itself with the things of the Lord and seeks to serve ever better the One to whom it has given dominion over its heart. Then what in the Christian mystical tradition is called the “exchange of hearts” takes place. The old heart, from which so much evil came (cf. Mt 15:19), is removed from our breast; and, in exchange, a new heart is implanted in us, modeled after the Heart of God.
It is a different life, a life that pleases God and serves mankind. It is THE life to which we are all called and which will never cease.