O lux beatissima, O most blessed light,
reple cordis intima fill the inmost heart
tuorum fidelium. of your faithful.
The inmost heart. Fill the inmost heart! Where is my inmost heart? What part of me is that innermost sanctuary of my existence? Many people never find that place; many never take the time and the silence to travel deep within themselves to be there and find the Lord there.
There are excuses: “It isn’t important.” “Life is about work and getting things done – it’s about progress in the world.” “It’s too scary to go there.” “It’s not real.” “Only monks and psychologists need to worry about ‘finding that innermost place.’”
Ah, but it is real. It is important. AND – It is possible to find. If you have ever prayed in a truly heartfelt way, you have been at that place within your heart.
But what is this innermost place? We find a strikingly beautiful, wise, and common-sense answer to this question in the document Gaudium et Spes, one of the four Constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. The council Fathers describe the conscience as the innermost heart of the human being: “Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.” (GS, 16)
The core of the human being, then, is the “place” of my personality where I choose. It is where “I” am most “I.” This is the “I” who says, “I want,” “I need,” “I hope,” etc.
Who am I?
I am (i.e. I exist)
In relationship
To THE
I AM.
At my most fundamental core, I exist as a being – a person – in relationship to other persons. And one of those other persons is the one God who is three persons who made me, knows me, loves me, and delights in being in me. This relationship with God we call prayer, friendship, sonship. With other human beings, we call it friendship, relationship, etc.
When we ask the Holy Spirit to fill our inmost heart with his presence and his light, we are asking him to make us a prayer. In other words, we are saying, “Set us perfectly in relationship with you, O God. Make my innermost heart rest inside of you as you come rest inside of me.” Remember, St. Augustine once wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
This is, therefore, a petition from the very core of our humanity: “Fill our hearts! Don’t just come halfway or fill up a portion, but FILL them. Make them “replete” with your presence. Every corner, crevice, dint, and fold. Be in our hearts, O Holy Spirit.”
When he fills our conscience, we are filled with his light, and we become free to choose the good, the true, and the beautiful. We see rightly.
May the Holy Spirit bring that light to our inmost heart. Come Holy Spirit, set us on fire with your Love!