Heart

- Our heart was created by God to love Him and our neighbor. When we seek the authentic good of others, we find true happiness. Conversely, he who hates inflicts the deepest damage not upon the person resented, but upon his own heart.

- This mindset focuses exclusively on material possessions, constricting the heart's capacity to love by confining it to perishable goods (see poverty). In many instances, people crave money above all else for themselves and others, leaving genuine human affection neglected and starved.

- The selfish person loves only himself. Consequently, he loves wrongly and destructively, shriveling the heart that was created to love generously. Closely bound to selfishness are several related spiritual disorders:

• Pride, which adds hardness of heart, callousness, and disdain toward others, accompanied by an obstinate resistance to personal correction.
• Lukewarmness (spiritual apathy).—The disposition of one who desires to love without effort or sacrifice, consistently putting personal ease before the good of others. He neither hates nor loves; he merely drifts.
• Disordered sexuality.—When sexuality is lived as total mutual self-giving open to new life, the heart expands in nobility. Conversely, when sexual intimacy is reduced to selfish physical gratification, selfishness flourishes and the heart is degraded. (The intelligence is likewise darkened and enslaved by obsessive thoughts).
• Affective instability / sentimentality.—Surrendering to every emotional whim is another subtle form of selfishness. A truly noble heart is rich in affection, but knows with whom, when, and how to express it with prudence. A mature soul does not seek emotional self-gratification, but the selfless service and authentic good of others.
• Excessive pleasures and comfortable living feed selfishness, progressively crippling the soul's willingness to sacrifice itself for authentic love.

The heart grows and matures in proportion to the quality of what it loves. It expands as the good it loves is higher and as it desires that good for more people. Since God is the Supreme, Infinite Good, he who loves Him most ardently possesses the noblest and most capacious heart. To foster this love of God, spiritual masters recommend:

• Meditating upon the Passion and sufferings of Christ.—Contemplating what our Savior endured for our sake makes His infinite love tangible, moving our heart to surrender to God's love without shrinking from the sacrifices involved.
• Spiritual childhood and piety.—Cultivating the trusting, filial intimacy of little children before our Heavenly Father draws the heart close to the Lord and protects it against pride. In the same way, tender and confident filial devotion to Holy Mary brings profound grace and healing to our heart.

Self-love is harmful only when disordered or excessive. A life of total self-indulgence and ease, for example, ruins a person. Upright self-love seeks:

• The cultivation of virtue.—Acquiring moral virtues is the greatest personal good, even when demanding effort. Specifically, charity and humility, chastity and detachment directly cure the spiritual ailments of the heart.
• Generous sacrifice and mortification.—Whatever curbs excessive comfort and sensuality strips the heart of selfish layers, equipping it with the interior strength necessary to do good to others. Thus, trials embraced with faith uniquely purify and ennoble the human heart.

Through concrete daily acts: humble service, patient understanding, mutual respect, fraternal correction done with kindness, and above all apostolate—taking a sincere interest in the eternal salvation and well-being of the souls around us.