Reflections shared by e-mail at the request of Sister Ginny Dennehy, RSCJ, for the RSCJ Associates Meetings in Atherton, California, November 10, 2004, and December 4, 2004; and in person during the Lent Series on “Karl Rahner’s Prophetic Approach to the Church,” All Hallows Church, La Jolla, California, March 8, 2005.
           

Rahner's reflections on the love of neighbor contribute to what I choose to call a spirituality of the pierced Heart.  This spirituality is grounded in Jesus Christ whose Heart was pierced out of love.  The dominant attitude of Christ's Heart was love of neighbor and of God. A spirituality of the pierced Heart enters into the loving surrender and service of the pierced Heart of Christ.  In fact, I propose that love of the neighbor can be called a "symbol" of the attitudes and dispositions of Christ's Heart.  Love of neighbor can be viewed as the fulfillment of a spirituality of the pierced Heart.  This spirituality informs a mysticism of everyday life.¹

            As I worked with Rahner's reinterpretation of devotion to the Sacred Heart which by the time he was writing in the twentieth century had come to be associated with certain practices like the novena before the first Friday and first Friday eucharistic celebrations preceded by a holy hour of reparation the day/night before, I came to see that he was free enough to let go of the devotional practices and chose instead to articulate the bare bones of what I chose to call a spirituality of Christ's heart based on attitudes of heart rather than devotional practices, primarily the love of neighbor.

            Second, I value Rahner's insight into the unity of the love of neighbor and the love of God, not that it is a new insight but that the framing of it situates our choices to value others, as the way we express our love of God. Is this not what we mean by becoming totally contemplative and totally apostolic as one movement?

            Third, I really treasure Rahner's insight into the heart as the center of freedom, of decision-making. What draws me is that a spirituality of the heart based on this insight might need to re-examine, for example, how much we are motivated by our shoulds and expectations and drivenness, and how much we are motivated by how we feel drawn and attracted to be and do what we want coming from the deepest center of our being, regardless of what others may think or feel.

            Fourth, what does/could our love of neighbor look like operationally, experientially? I wonder if our call to love our neighbor is a call to similar attitudes of heart which we may most often associate with our call to love God, namely, self-emptying and surrender to the Spirit. In other words, how is it that our spirituality of Christ's heart is enlarged by our acts of living freely in faith, motivated more by our true self than by our ego needs and fears?

-How can we be summoned to surrender to the presence of Jesus in a person whom we may find it difficult to love and accept since that person may mirror shadow sides of ourselves that we may find it difficult to love and accept in ourselves? For example, if we have a hard time loving the controling part of ourselves, are we going to keep bumping up against this trying to love someone who may at times seem controling to us and may in fact seem to be trying to control us? What is the invitation according to a spirituality of Christ's heart? Rather than "blaming" the other person for being the cause of our misery, or  "offering" up the discomfort and unpleasantness this evokes, can we take this as an invitation to let that part of ourselves and of the other person simply be as an act of loving in the shape of Christ's pierced heart making us more vulnerable to unloved, orphaned, widowed parts of ourselves from which we would rather disassociate? This might mean breathing into the discomfort and unpleasantness, without trying to change the situation or the other person or avoid the situation or the other person. It might mean perhaps even freely choosing to accept that other person exactly as she/he is, even reaching out with compassion, kindness, empathy, interest, concern, gratitude, and forgiveness to the other person, since these habits of heart are incompatible with anger.

- How do we let our love, our loves, ourselves, be purified in the commitment to keep staying at the table with people whom we might otherwise prefer to ignore? In other words, what is it like to keep loving someone when there is nothing in it for ourselves, without bitterness or despair? Is this not the way Christ loves us? Is this not the way Madeleine Sophie Barat, RSCJ,  loved Eugénie de Gramont, RSCJ? the way Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ, loved Father Van Quickenborne? This is not the Valentine notion of the heart, but rather a biblical notion of the heart as the core of the person in it fundamental yes to Yahweh, to God, to the other person. Can we bear to love others in our and their vulnerability, beyond our and their capacity to love, to keep choosing to be grateful for the gift of the other person and to accept that person exactly as she/he is, over and beyond the hurt and pain that person may cause us without knowing it?

            Fifth, I believe that Rahner fleshes out what he means by the unity of the love of neighbor and the love of God in the following quotation: “This emptying of self will not be accomplished by pure inwardness, but by the real activity which is called humility, service, love of our neighbor, the cross, and death.²           

            Sixth, I propose that we could explore also the unity of the love of self, the love of neighbor, and the love of God. What does/could that look like experientially, concretely? I find that the people who are gentle with and kind to themselves are the ones who are gentle and kind with others. Those who are relaxed and calm seem to be present to others in a relaxed and calm manner. For me, the fruit of our inner work of self-acceptance is the love of neighbor and the love of God.            

            I speak from the experience of having lived with difficult people and discovering over and over again that what I find difficult to live with in others is exactly what I find difficult to live with in myself. I  would love to know how others fill in the blanks and push this reflection further, based on their own reflections on their lived experiences of what it means to be women and men of Christ's heart. Is this not the rub, quite apart from the candles, incense, beautiful music, sunsets, and favorite spiritual quotes?