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The Thinking Heart
The Thinking Heart
We are living in a world in which we are used to keeping everything at a distance. Admittedly, we are daily reminded of the misery of the world, but usually we don’t stop to think of it much. When we have seen the daily news we go back to the order of the day. After all, there is not much more we can do if we want to fulfill our daily obligations. The only way to bridge this distance and still be able to do something at that distance is to take the misery of the world to heart, irrespective of the fact that we can actually do so little. A master in this art was Etty Hillesum (1914-1943)* who, during the terrors of the Second World War, gave herself the task: “I want to be the thinking heart. I would wish to be the thinking heart of a whole concentration camp.” Her broken life is a witness of taking-to-heart, whereas outwardly she could do nothing for others. What do we then have left? The thinking heart.
There is a moment in the Act of Consecration of Man that asks for taking the world to heart. But usually at this culminating point of the service we are so busy with ourselves that we forget the rest of the world. After all, it is the most intimate moment when we, each for herself or himself, receive the peace. What kind of peace is that?
The Act of Consecration itself gives an answer, but we tend to forget this answer when we receive the peace of Christ. For early in the Communion, He says: “This peace with the world can be with you also…” In radical terms: His peace is not earmarked for me, but through me: for the world, with the world. In the most precious moment of the Act of Consecration of Man, if we take the suffering, battling world to heart in our thinking, this world can briefly come to rest in us and find peace.
-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, October 23, 2022.
* Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman in Holland who was picked up by the Nazis during World War II, spent time in the Dutch concentration camp and died in Auschwitz. She left a diary in which she recorded profound experiences.
Let us…
In the first words of the Act of Consecration of Man a task is expressed that can stay with us for the rest of our life. You can make a beginning with it when before the service you look around: with whom will we fulfill the Act of Consecration of Man? Who are meant with the little word “us?” Can I in some way take those present along in this great prayer? That becomes more difficult when someone is present for whom we feel antipathy, or perhaps even worse than that. But such a person also forms part of the Act of Consecration of Man. Even for our enemies and for those who persecute us do we have the task to pray (Matthew 5:44).
In the course of the Act of Consecration the circle of the community with whom we pray opens out. All Christians and all who have died may participate in the offering. Whenever we feel together with a soul who has died, who offers with us on the other side of the threshold, we begin to experience that not only this one, but countless deceased souls want to participate in the altar service. Even when a few people are praying, it may be “full” at the altar. That is why the text of the Act of Consecration says: “… all who have died.”
In the last part the altar service opens itself once more for the word “us.” The communion speaks not only about us the living, about Christians, and those who have died, but about the life of the world. Eight times the word “world” sounds in this part. The peace of Christ is meant for the life of the entire world. The Act of Consecration of Man is so great that we can include everyone and everything in this prayer. Christ does not want to redeem a small select group, but the whole world. However, He cannot do this alone. Our Christian Community may in the coming century and centuries perhaps remain an insignificant small movement, but the Act of Consecration of Man can also in a community of a few persons grow to infinity.
Christ needs our prayer. May the word “us” grow forever and encompass all—all who are present, all true Christians, all who have died, until eventually the world has become part of our prayer. Thus we can help Him to bear and order the life of the world.
-Rv. Bastiaan Baan, October 2022