True Heart or Sacred Heart are images used to describe Jesus and by extension the Holy Spirit and indeed the Creator of all. But what does this special attention to maturing and growing one's heart really mean? The full answer probably would require a book or more to explore. But here are a few intersections when speaking of 'heart'.
One meaning is to see past the surfaces that fill up our waking experience; things like categories or labels or brands – of denominations, ethnicity, genre or even the roles we play during the day ('worker', spouse, sibling, friend, stranger) and over the course of the year and indeed life cycle. Seeing past this first impressions we catch hints and glimpses of what lies under the surface; the person inside what looks like an old person, a mentally distressed person, an 'enemy' or perpetrator of crimes convicted of harming others, a foreign language speaker, or even across species – to see beyond the category of 'pet' or 'livestock' or 'shellfish' and consider that creation and consciousness also inhabit these non-human forms of life.
At the dentist office the other day, just for a moment, I caught myself imagining the supporting staff and professionals in more 3-dimensional view (not just communicating in the fixed dialog of office business or dental topics) to include their outside responsibilities, hobbies or pursuits, and so on. The same is true when I have bumped into a person familiar in one setting now in another context; for example, meeting church friend at movie theater by chance, or seeing one's coach or teacher in the grocery story, or seeing a childhood friend at the airport among a sea of strangers. In each case we are invited, or maybe forced, to see past the surfaces and routine vision. Putting a person or experience that fits into one setting suddenly into a new frame or context somehow opens up the meaning; what once seemed unchanging and something of certainty, at least for a moment, is open for negotiation, exploration, and reinterpretation. It becomes alive and is again in motion.
Another meaning of Christianity as a religion to grow one's heart is the modern concept of "emotional intelligence," not knowing something purely by rational logic or verbal engagement using powerful analytical tools, but knowing something in personal terms, in relational sense, through indirect and imperfect perception or intuited meaning. Stated in terms of person to person, sustained interactions this 'heart' means to see the other person with empathy (the person's own terms and perspective, not your own). It further means to see the other person non-verbally, relying instead on the direct perception (not exactly mind-reading or telepathy) of 'feeling' or 'sensing' the other person's wellness, righteousness, struggles and strengths. Maturing followers of The Way (Jesus as the embodiment of The Way, "follow me") will trust more and more their heart to lead them in small and large decisions with others and for oneself.
A third meaning of developing one's heart is being able to see past the details that can preoccupy, distract, or delay one's engagement in larger meanings and higher value matters such as one's search for God's face and presence, one's intent to build a righteous heart, one's vision of those who constitute "one's neighbors" (the ones we are to love, even as much as we love ourselves; indeed, equal to our love of God). In other words, compared to one's less spiritually self, today you have increased capacity to tolerate lack of structure, absence of rules, conditions that once would have seem disordered, and indeed, alternate ways of worshiping God through prayer, sacrifice, and service to others. What once was narrow, now is wider; much like the visual image of the animated story of the Grinch who Stole Christmas, his heart once was 3 sizes too small, but after the revelation of the meaning of Christmas, his heart is shown to grown even bigger than full-size. His heart becomes very big, indeed. In a similar way, the zealous seeker of The Way will experience an ever bigger capacity to love others, including a wider range of others different to one's self and one's familiar world.
Surely there are many other ways in which 'heart' serves as the central idea of Christianity; perhaps synonymous with 'love' (the many distinct words for love in the New Testament Greek: philos, eros, agape/karitas). But the above meanings stand out most to me these days: seeing past the surfaces of the person (what you see on the outside upon first impressions), something wider than emotional intelligence alone, and seeing past the details to glimpse the bigger pictures; not to "sweat the small stuff" in one's day or lifetime.
