I know that God has a pulse, and that God is a pulse.
The Holy Trinity is a pulse. To be the Father is to give Life, to give Life eternally and to never not be giving Life. To be the Son is to receive and return Life, pouring Himself back to the Father and never not receiving or returning that life. To be the Holy Ghost is to be Life, to be poured and never not poured in boundless Life. The Holy Trinity is an eternal pulse, an eternal pouring of Life one to another and back again, God to God, Light to Light, Life to Life. Christ, the Son, the Logos, is the Pulse; Christ is the Heart which constantly receives and returns the fullness of life. Christ is the Heart of the Trinity.
But God chose to do still more. God chose, not only to be the Pulse, but to have a pulse. In the beginning was the Pulse, the Heart, and all things that were made were made through the Heart, and all things that were made have a pulse because they participate in the Pulse. And the Pulse became flesh, and bears a human Heart. The heart of the Pulse beats with the pulse of creation, and the heart of the Pulse beats for eternity. Christ the Pulse, the Heart of the Trinity, becomes the Heart of the Church, and His heart is a human heart.
How did He do this? How did unfallen Glory take flesh, when all flesh was fallen? How does the Pulse of eternal life come down and pulse with the hearts doomed to entropy, to slowing and death? How does the Heart who is the Pulse beat with the hearts who will lose the pulse? He did it by fashioning another heart, a heart to perfectly reflect His own, a Heart free from sin. An immaculate heart.
In the fullness of time, the Pulse took flesh inside the woman. He grew for nine months just as we all do, sheltered in the secret of darkness beneath a pulsing human heart. His own heartbeat started after about six weeks– the small Heart which was the Heart of Eternity, there beneath the heart of His ciboria. Her heartbeat was the first sound He heard, when his human ears took form. After the Nativity, he fed at her breast, held against her own heart. Her heart broke for Him when He was taken to the temple; it broke again as they fled from genocide. Her heart broke when He was lost in Jerusalem, and again when He was crucified. Her heart broke once more when His heart was pierced by the lance. The Heart of Christ was still, but hers lived and broke again as she lost Him to the tomb. And then, after the Sabbath was ended, the pulse began anew. She beheld Him, and her heart was glad.
At the heart of all Creation, the Creator is hidden. And the Creator has chosen to have a heart. By His design, the pulse of the universe flows from the Pulse of a human heart. By His eternal plan, the Heart of Christ is enthroned in the heart of His mother, a human, a woman like me. For all eternity, the Creator is a human Heart enthroned in a human heart. And still a deeper mystery: He longs to be enthroned in my heart and your heart as well, that my pulse and your pulse may be His Pulse. Those that beat with the Pulse who is God Himself, will never lose the pulse. Those who live in Christ will never die.
Art is sacred, because it reveals Creation. Creation is sacred because it enthrones the Creator. At the heart of all created things, there is a pulse that reflects the Pulse of the Trinity, and the Creator dwells among us, one with us in that same Pulse.
Today is the evening of the feast of the Sacred Heart; tomorrow begins the feast of the Immaculate Heart. Today we celebrate the Creator and His Throne, hidden in the pulse of Creation. Blessed be the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. May all hearts love them, now and in eternity.
(image via Pixabay)
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