Having Jesus In Your Heart 22

“Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. And seeing crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He says to his disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.’” Matthew 9:35-38

“In the internal sense ‘sickness’ means evil – the kinds of things that attack spiritual life. The sicknesses are evil desires and cravings, while the components of spiritual life are faith and charity. That life is sick when falsity exists instead of the truth of faith, and evil instead of the good of charity, because they lead to the death of that life, which is called spiritual death and is damnation, just as sicknesses lead to the death of natural life….Since sicknesses represented the unrighteous ways and the evils of spiritual life, the sicknesses which the Lord healed [delivered people] from the different kinds of evil and falsity that were molesting the Church and human race and that would have brought spiritual death. Divine miracles…involve and have regard to states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom; and this is why the Lord's miracles were primarily healing of sicknesses. These miracles are meant by the Lord's words addressed to the disciples sent by John, ‘Tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the gospel.’ Matt. 11:4, 5.” Secrets of Heaven §8364:2, 6

Perhaps you have had the experience (as I did many years ago) of walking on a trail and coming upon a bush full of ripe blueberries. All you have to do is reach out and take as many handfuls as you want. There was so many that you had little concern about dropping a few as the stems full of berries ran through your fingers as you brought you hand out of the bush.

Perhaps you have also had the experience of picking raspberries from the small and carefully tended patch in the backyard. Every one is precious, and you work carefully picking individual berries, careful not to squash the soft ones. If you drop one, you will risk scrapes from the stems to retrieve it if you can.

The difference between these attitudes is one’s response to a perception of abundance. My attitude is based on my sense of how much work there is for me relative to the benefit I will get. This is why the cereal makers want their product displayed at eye level in the market so that I make the least effort to see it. That is why the “sound bite” was invented, reducing the thinking effort required to get the emotional reaction.

My point here is not to bemoan how easily our spiritual life is impacted by external circumstances. That is always going to be happening. The point is to notice if we are allowing external stimuli to manipulate our emotions. That would be a state of spiritual sleep, when our life has no conscious intention. The point is to be grateful for what the Lord has provided you because you intentionally and affirmatively notice its abundance. 

Perhaps you have experienced a child running into your arms as you bend down, giving you a tight hug. Perhaps you have experienced visiting a sick child, who could only weakly lift her arms from the bed. Have you noticed that you feel the difference between these two in your stomach? This is why the Greek word for compassion is based on the word for “bowels.”

There are lots of circumstances that elicit a feeling of compassion, that wrench in our stomach in reaction to misery. The point is not that we are responsible for fixing them all, the point is to notice the physical feeling and the emotion that has generated it. You have a spiritual, emotional reaction that produces the sensation (not the other way around). If you do not feel the grip in your stomach, it is because the emotion wasn’t formed. The point is to be aware when we no longer feel a sensation in our bowels; when we no longer feel compassion. That would indicate that we don’t care, which may be another sign of spiritual sleep or woundedness. The point is to allow the compassion – like Jesus Christ felt – to be felt in our bodies and expressed in our faces, arms, and hands.

Perhaps you have gone on a “guilt trip” noticing that you didn’t help someone who obviously needed it. I have agonized over such missed opportunities. I have also rationalized them away. I have also felt completely unable to do anything. The point is not to seek forgiveness through self-flagellation. The point is to ask for forgiveness that opens the heart to new wisdom. The point is that Jesus Christ will visit our hearts through these experiences and provide feelings of gratitude and compassion. As we are healed by Jesus Christ, we are able to feel compassion, and then sense it our bodies, eventually becoming wise enough to be in action about it.

Perhaps it is useful to imagine the pain Jesus Christ felt in His gut as he looked out over the crowds, day after day, realizing He would not be able to reach them all. I really get that He said to His close followers, as if in an aside, that He wished there were more workers. Jesus Christ actually could heal every single disease, and hurt, and weakness that was presented to Him. He really could have stayed on the earth and fixed everything.

And that is not the point. Jesus Christ wants us all to know of the preparations He has made for our healing today. As we allow His love and wisdom to form our hearts and minds, we will more and more feel compassion and will actually become a worker in the field, joyfully harvesting what we have not planted, experiencing abundance we intend even though we know we do not create it. Jesus Christ is actually abiding in our heart, and working through our actions.