Ezekiel 36:26 “And I Will Give You a New Heart”

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I Will Give You a New Heart”

By: Eric Gajewski

“And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh”

As we speak there are many people looking to give their heart unto something or someone.  Men look high and low seeking a place of rest for their hearts but they shall not find it until they unite their own with Christ’s.  There is no question His Sacred Heart is our Source and End.  If we have any hope of eternal salvation, we must cling to this eternal heart daily.  If we have any hope of being in the Presence of this Eternal Heart forever than we must start today in uniting our own will with His.  Logic would indicate that by “getting a new heart” the old would first need to be transplanted and replaced.  In order to accomplish this we must examination our own conscience (as part of our daily routine).  We must implore the Holy Ghost to convict us of our shortcomings, failures and faults so that we can continually move forward in grace.  The modern Marxist world is always talking about progress but it has nothing to do with the interior life.  Our end as Christians is Charity alone but we will not get there if we are not daily marking our progress or lack thereof.  I look back on my life wherein I was very close to God as a child but then fell away during my twenties only to want Him even more by mid-thirties. 

My heart could not endure the trials of this life.  God made it abundantly to clear to me in my early thirties that I literally could do nothing without him.  I went from one long trial to the next relying in Faith and Hope to carry me through.  Thus, this is where I grew because I saw Him conquering the supposed “problems” in my life.  I say “supposed” because truly it was the self which had been in the way of my love for Him.  As a side note suggestion, mark down in a journal what you are asking for on a daily basis, to determine the pattern of “you’re asking”.  Assuredly God wants to hear from you but over time God will point out the selfishness in our prayers.  We really don’t consider what God wants us for us at least not consistently.  Modern man thinks he can get by without God.  It has the pseudo wings of reason and science which are too brittle to brace the storms of life.  We recall that it was Faith and Hope which parted the Red Sea and it is these true wings which we will have to use again in the Great Storm approaching.  Reason and science are subordinate to Faith (Vatican I) and it is the Catholic Faith (objectively speaking/in general) which the devil wants to forever eradicate from the face of the earth.

My heart was stony and weighed me down.  Where are you on the eternal timeline?  Starting at the far left is “self” and all the way to the right is His Sacred Heart.  Souls who die in mortal sin (due to self) go to hell.  Start asking yourselves these important questions.  Do you do all that you do out of human respect or do you do it for God?  Are ALL of your intentions pure enough to pass through the Fiery trial?  Those who say they do for Christ and truly live by the law of self will ultimately succumb and be burned.  Yet those who have pure intentions shall walk out of the Fiery trial like the 3 Hebrew children unharmed.  Take a look at Judas now.  Hearts which are stony are full of pride.  This perfectly described my life in the secular world always doing what I did for some means to an end which was certainly not God at that point.  Are we pretending to fit in with Gods people but our hearts are somewhere else?  On the contrary to man’s stony heart we have Christ’s Sacred Heart which is easy and light (Mt 11:30).  There is only One Heart which can breakdown the stony hearts of this modern world who think they can travel a different path and end safely.  There is only One Heart which can break us down and yet at the same time build us anew.  It is in the purification process that so many quit because it seems to be “dark” interiorly daily.  If souls would be brave and know that He is simply preparing your heart and soul for Him alone they would carry on but unfortunately most don’t.  Most mystical writers suggest this and I concur.  Most souls in a state of grace are still found in the lower floors of the Fortress.  This is not a good thing it would suggest that most people have an awful lot of purging to go through in Purgatory upon death.  They have one eye on Christ and the other on the world and things.  Yet if we are to be in the Presence of God forever how could we thence long for anything other than Him?  This is why Purgatory is both necessary and logical.

Bless the Broken Road 

 

A broken heart.  How does that famous country song go again?  “I Bless the Broken Road which led me straight to you” I believe that is how it goes.  I look back on failed relationships with girls and realize that my heart was still longing and searching for something more.  I was broken interiorly but wouldn’t allow others to see it on the surface.  I was sinking in the quicksand of sin and was calling out silently and no girl was going to settle my heart.  Everything that I thought I needed turned out to be folly.  From girls, to fancy cars, big home and lots of money I was living the American Dream and it was truly a spiritual nightmare.  I chased and the more I chased the more I realized that I would not find “rest” for my heart in anything else but God.  Nevertheless, it was a process and over time the more I denied the self and carried on through my afflictions the more I was drawn to Him.  Isn’t this what He wants?  Let me ask all of you this again.  Do you ever ask God what He wants in your own prayer life?  The day we forget about ourselves is the day we know we are united at Will.  The day we no longer recognize that we are suffering is the day when two hearts remain united.  Brethren, broken Roads lead to the narrow path and this narrow path is the Vein running to and for His Heart.

A new spirit. Passing through the purification stage into the illumination stage I noticed a song spring forth from deep within my soul at times which caused me to tear.  Wisdom began to speak from that day forth.  We must remember that our hearts must first be crushed in order that His Heart be transplanted into our own.  Due to original sin we are sick and our hearts are ailing. Modern man will try the “pacemaker” out but it can only work for a short period of time.  Nay, the Sacred Heart of Christ is ETERNAL.  There was no beginning to Love and there is no End.  Now our duty in our journey is to find this River and jump in it.  Do not leave it by it mortally sinning!  In this River is where the heart and soul can find this song.  It is where the whole world seemingly stops and a new life starts. O’ what a mystery to be found in the Trinity!  He will take that spirit of man which seeks to control and manipulate and replace it with His Heart that is always seeking to give.  Thus we must analyze whether we are we more like Christ or fallen man in our actions.  Without going through Christ man is hopeless.  He can build this false city of security around him all that he wants but God is simply smiling in the background just waiting to show man “the straw” it is built with. Just wait till the economic collapse occurs in this country and you will see the disorder of hearts on display.  Yea, most of us do not start out on the narrow path.  We are always trying other roads first to see if they will quench our hearts and they will not.  

Ask God to take not give?  Take away my stony heart hardened by self! O’ God take from me all that displease Thee in so that through You I might be able to give.  In the end, the things that God possesses gives.  Due to being born into original sin and the virus of self we are tending “to take” and look for some gain.  Yet, what is it if I were to gain the whole world with all of its things and lose my own soul for all of eternity?  What do you value more than your soul in relation to eternity?  Therefore, ask God, as a part of this “breakdown process” of the self, in the purification stage, to take from you, that which is an impediment to your ultimate Union with Him.  As I mentioned earlier in this writing most souls dwell in the lower floors of the Fortress of the Soul.  They have one eye on Christ and one eye on the windows which lookout into the world.  There are many windows on these lower floors and thus more opportunities to be distracted.  We serve Christ a platter with one hand while our head is looking out the window watching the football game or attracted by some other worldly allurement.  Brethren, the devil wants us to be distracted because he knows the soul which is not praying is dead ultimately.  It maybe stagnant at best but eventually it will sink.  Ask yourself again, “What do you clutch on to that is so important which you think you cannot possibly give up for God”?  The rich man was sent away in Scripture because he was weighed down by things and this perfectly describes the majority in our modern world.  

In closing as St. Francis says it is those who truly give who are receiving and we receive Christ into our hearts when we first are willing to give away all things and not just some things.  If you find in your examination that you need to be surrounded by men rather than God alone than you love the creature over the Creator.  We cannot restore the world to Catholicism through Christ if we will not first restore our own hearts and order them properly unto His.  We cannot wholly give to neighbor (giving of Christ) and those we meet if we don’t first learn to ask to have things taken from us.  Stony hearts are jagged, rough and ultimately weigh down the soul.  Be honest with yourselves in your examinations and may God Bless you, Ave Maria!