Closed Heart Syndrome

Heart Condition

“The condition of the heart matters. The heart, the self at its deepest level, can be turned toward God or away from God, open to God or closed to God. But its typical condition is that it is turned away from God and ‘closed.’”

Marcus Borg (The Heart of Christianity, p.151)

          Marcus Borg, in The Heart of Christianity, wrote a list of the symptoms of “closed heart.” They include, blindness and limited vision—we do not see clearly, nor do we hear clearly. A closed heart, according to Borg, affects the mind and its ability to reason. It can even deceive the mind with rationalizations and denials, which may be fiercely guarded. This self-deception especially reveals itself in the way we project onto others what we do not want to see in ourselves. A closed heart has trouble experiencing gratitude. We may see ourselves as “self-made,” as opposed to recognizing all the people and circumstances that paved the way for our success. Conversely, if life has not gone as well as we hoped, we may be bitter and intent on blaming others. With a closed heart, we rarely experience wonder. The world holds no magic, and we may be insensitive to nature in all its forms. A closed heart lives in exile. It is disconnected and estranged from the gift of joy and lacks compassion for others. And finally, when one’s heart is closed, one is insensitive to injustice, and views the inequities of the world as “just the way things are.”

          The cure for “closed heart syndrome” usually comes in the form of an event that levels the playing field. A misfortune, a diagnosis, a dramatic fall from grace or loss of status is like receiving a glass of ice-cold water in the face. It we are fortunate, it takes only one dousing to wake us up enough to realize that the problem is not “out there,” but “in here.” That all the suspicions and insults we’ve been hurling at others, in fact, belong to us. To say the least, this is not happy news. It sometimes feels devastating. But before one can have an “open heart,” one must clearly see the closed one.

The chaos we are enduring right now is a product of “closed heart syndrome.” We have rationalized and denied our part in it and been granted partial and substantial reprieves from finding and investing in real solutions. The jig is up. The time has come. The only cure for closed hearts is, of course, open hearts. Lucky for us, that has been promised. “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26) May it be so.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane