Hajja Salesjana

wounded by sin, human nature has not been corrupted. It retains its essential orientation to love and this natural inclination to love God becomes an effective ‘crook by which God can gently hold us and draw us to himself.’ 13 This is possible because God’s love is breathed into us at creation. In his earliest book, Meditations on the Church , St Francis writes that Adam only becomes human whenever God inspires him (that is, breathes his life into him). This ‘mass of earth’ becomes human only after receiving the breath of love. As Pocetto reminds us, “thus love enters into the very make-up of the human person, into the innermost structure of our being ... For this reason, human life is to be considered essentially as a life of freedom in love.” 14 In us all things must be set in order by love and for love: “Just as weight gives movement to the moveable parts of a clock, so love gives to the soul whatever movement it has.” 15 This, then, is our universal calling to holiness, everyone is called to love. It is in and through our love of God and neighbour that we give glory to the God who is creating us now. At a very natural level, that is, at the level of nature, we have been created in such a way so as to be able to receive God’s communication because the human heart is not only oriented to the good, but created to love the infinite good. St Francis remarks that “God has planted in the human heart not only a special, natural inclination to love the good in general, but to love in particular and above all things his divine goodness.” 16 As André Ravier points out, “the heart of God has made the human heart.” 17 So, we can say with the psalmist, “He made us, we belong to Him.” 18 If we were to attempt to translate what St Francis is saying into more contemporary language we could say that we are ‘hard-wired’ for God. Our ‘natural inclination’ to God is borne out of our natural desire for God and this means that we have an intrinsic God- ward orientation or an orientation to God. We have a fundamental basic attraction for God. Our attraction towards other human beings rests on this principle that we are drawn towards what we perceive to be good, beautiful and true. People are signposts on the journey since their beauty, truth and goodness points us to the supreme Beauty, Truth and Goodness that is God. The Wounded Heart In every great love story there is an element of tragedy. This is also true of the love story between God and humanity. God is our God and our heart is His home. Although the human heart is created by God with a potential to love God and others, the journey towards true love is often short-circuited. This is because instead of transcending ourselves and becoming a gift in love, we seek self-gratification and our love becomes self-centered through sin, disordered desires, and self-love. It follows that the human heart is ‘arrhythmic’ that is, it beats out of rhythm with the heart of God. When we are no longer in relation to the true and living God, we will quite quickly seek compensations and the false gods of addiction become more attractive. It is a small step to become absorbed with the things God has created rather than recognizing them as gifts from God. As St Francis teaches, however, we become Photo by Irene Strong - www.unsplash.com 12 Jannar-Marzu 2022 hajja