MANUEL CORTS

6
th
International Encounter
Lay Marianist Communities
Peru 2014

Faith of the Heart lived by superiors of the four branches
Panel: Thinking as a family

When I received the questions, well, I tried to be synthetic because/
one can lengthen a lot and,/
well, I am going to start to answer the question: what does the faith of the heart
means for your heart, /
what is your personal experience of the faith of the heart?/
I am going to start saying that I need to explain something/
previously/
and I need to explain /
what the heart is /
because, of course, /
we have talked a lot about faith and faith is being talked about but it is about the
faith of the heart and here nobody talked about the heart. /
So, for me to explain later very quickly, what it would be, what is my experience
about the faith of the heart,/
I think it is important to talk about the heart./
the heart has to be understood in a biblical sense /
not in a sense of our culture /
and this understanding is acquired/
well by contemplating the human person, the man in the bible,/
you learn a lot about the heart, in the psalms. /
I like a lot the liturgical translation that we have in Spanish of the psalm 27, /
in the bible/
in the liturgy is the 26, you know that about San Geronimo and the Hebrew bible, /
where there is a verse that says:/
My heart says of you, Seek his face! /
Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me./
Then, the heart listens/
but the heart decides too, /
My heart says, Seek my face!
And the psalmist responds Your face, Lord, I will seek, /
but dont hide your face from me. /
Generally, when we talk between us about the heart, we understand it as a place of
the feelings/
and we are tempted to think/
that the faith of the heart is the faith/
that warms us the feelings, that please us that (3:27). /
And I think that that vision of the heart is reductionist/
and dont lead us to understand at least it doesnt lead me to understand the faith of
the heart. /
The heart is not only the interior place where an echo is produced of what is
happening to us, /
an echo that is emotional, this produces me joy, this produces me sadness, this
produces me satisfaction, this produces me restlessness, all of these things, /
it is not only the heart, the center in which our interior what happens to us,
resonates and manifests in the form of feelings/
The biblical heart, also, is that center of our interior where the desires are
produced/
and where the will resides,/
therefore, the heart is not only a place of feelings/
is a desire source and it is a place of will./
This seems important /
to me to remember,/
and what happens in our heart?
Occurs that normally/
our feelings, later, are transformed into desires/
and the will acts./
That about the psalmist, My heart says, seek my face! Your face, Lord, I will seek.
I want to see your face/
and I will do it in an active way. /
That is why; I think /
It is interesting; it always worked for me an analogy, /
the analogy between the heart /
and that place,/
which I dont think is the heart probably /
it has something more ideological /
in where the music resonates in our interior,/
we hear music and our feet starts to move, sometimes without understanding why,/
that is to say, we receive something that stimulates an action, /
a desire and an action,/
until here the explanation. /
Why have I done this explanation?/
Because this lets me explain better or communicate better what the faith of heart is
for me. /
The Faith of the Heart is to let, /
give permission, there is the liberty, /
to someone, in this case is Jesus,/
to enter in that chain that links the feelings to the desires and to the will and break
it/
this is very important, /
to let that someone breaks in my heart/
that very human chain that links the feelings to the desires and the will. /
And I am going to explain it with an example so everything is clearer. /
I also stated the example in my group, when an experience of Faith of the Heart in
your life was asked for. /
It used to be my group and she also shared her experience, so I share mine. For
me to explain what I understand for faith of heart, /
I said, well, I will tell an experience where I really realized that I was dipping; /
I was holding on to the Faith of the Heart, /
it was my election as a general superior in the general chapter of the ministries. /
We were in the chapter, the elections arrived, /
the voting was produced and they say: /
priest Manuel Cortes happens to be elected general superior, /
so, I receive that new, I get stick in the chair not knowing how to react, /
Why? Because of course, /
that means /
that my life/
was really going to change radically in all the ways, place, job, country, well you
can imagine. /
It is like being launched to a new reality and to the void. /
Feeling that was produced in my heart and I said it in the group: panic, /
Panic!/
If I guide myself by my feeling, what do I do?/
I run away, /
but, I have in my heart as religious and Marianist the door open for somebody to
cut /
that relationship among feeling and desire and will. /
That is the Faith of the Heart. /
And you have to be very convinced /
that this person/
Wants your well-being/
Although you cant see it/
Well I guess/
It is clear how I see the Faith of the Heart/
Because, when Maria/
Got the visitation of the angel/
Oh, see, thats good! I wanted to be the mother of this Jesus/
This was something a really wanted to happen and that I was expecting anxiously.
It is great that God can confirm my desires/
No. She had to open the door to someone who breaks among/
The proper feeling, desire and will/May YOUR word to me be fulfilled/
This is the Faith of the Heart/
Thats why we shouldnt learn from theologists . Learn from Saints!/
The ones who remain the Faith of the church are Saints not theologists, popes or
bishops/
We must remember this!/
The Father Santiago(11:21) knew it/
Thats why he wanted a town of saints/
Ill change the order of the questions, how do you get inspired by the Faith of the
heart in your Marianist mission? Well, you can see it/
It is important to realize that to be called, and I think Sonia has explained this
properly,/
Indeed, it means that./
That I give my life, and I give my life to someone else who is not me/
And well that is to open the door of my heart /
so that somebody can enters in order to break that chain/
I will make a side comment. For me the biggest problem now/
To discover the calling/
It is that we are not living it, nor showing it/
Yet what we want to do is just marketing/
And marketing, as advertisements do, tries to provoke a good feeling that makes
my heart move into desire and will/
So we make miracles just to sell products/
Unfortunately, that makes /
young people think that calling is a personal option/
I have gone to a supermarket of living options and said this is the one I like, the one
I like/
Then, when I have it on hands, I open the bottle and drink of it and that is not what I
expected/
That is not my calling/
How does the Faith of the Heart nourish your prayer life? /
I really like the definition Santa Teresa gives about the prayer in the Book of Life/
She says what to pray is. To pray is to try to reconcile/
Being sometimes dealing alone/
with the one who loves us. /
This is a perfect definition! Trying to reconcile/
Being sometimes alone dealing with the one who loves us/
Indeed, the prayer is the moment when we open the door to the one who loves us/
To have a friend is exactly the same, to allow that person to enters in my life, I
repeat/
And breaks the my chain/
That is to have a friend/
Well, to have a friend to help me go out, to have fun, to accompany me and to
solve my problems well, that is not friendship/
To allow someone to enter in my life/
I believe prayer is the moment when we do that, and it is necessary to pray
because we need to open the door to the Lord/
Ill share with that a long time ago/
Every time I pray/
I try to place myself as in that moment in which Maria got the visitation/
I feel the Lord, I dont make noise. This is the first condition, first virtue between the
virtues from Father Cheminade is to be in silence/
Im here just for you my Lord. I open you the door and silence everything/
So I ask the Lord to open my mind, my heart, my will, my life and I take the Holy
Scripture, always the Holy Scripture, and only the Holy Scripture /
And I try to ask what are you telling me, what do you want from me, make your will
be done/
But I have to say that for the Faith of the Heart, it is not enough to pray/
It is not enough/
The faith of the Heart opens to the presence that I admit in my life which is not me /
but is the Lord who comes to me/
The Lord comes to me/
I open my life to that presence, and little by little I will become close to that person
who has came into my life and has spoiled it, and has guided it and has kept on
tenterhooks/
Ill be getting close to him but I dont know him until I live what he lived/
Its so important above all if it is the Gospel of John but also other evangelists let us
see/
that to recognize Jesus, what is he and who is Jesus for us, it is needed to obey
him/
Lets remember about the wedding at Cana which we have quoted many times.
And what Maria says, Do whatever he tells you. They obey and the miracle
happens and the disciples believe in Jesus/
Or the invalid of the Pool/
Go inside the pool and have a shower, so he does it/
He obeys Jesus/
And when he gets out of the pool, Jesus is not there. Then he has a second
encounter. He asks who this is. Its me, Jesus says. Then he recognizes his Lord
lonsigo(17:48) since born, /
and so on/
Therefore is always an act of obedience to the Word of God which comes before
recognition/
Until I do not recognize facts in my life associated to Jesus life I cant go deep in
his knowledge. If I only stay in prayer, probably what I have on mind doesnt make
sense with reality/
____(18:28)
As Eduardo was saying yesterday, payer has to be translated in life and be
nourished by life/
Ill stop here because its time/
So I wont say anything about/
How do we live the Faith of the Heart? The heart of your life/
For now Ill just advise you one thing /
The biggest problem and I think the Marianist mission in the world if it is as it has to
be /
which is to promote and teach a true faith, /
we have to get into and break the immoral chain of our heart, world and culture/
A culture and a heart, which has been mentioned many times by the Pope
Francisco, are just for reference. We are referred only to our feelings and we dont
allow/
To anybody to go into that chain to break the link among feeling, desire and will.