What do we mean by 'heart'?

[fichtner4]

I searched the bible via the internet and found the word “heart” mentioned over 700 times. I do not understand what it means when I read the the statement “Changed heart”, or “soft heart”, or “hard heart”. When the word heart is used is it use like a parable? I don’t understand how a persons heart can be hard, changed, soft, etc. Would I be correct if I were to insert “mind” in place of heart, or is this just an inner feeling which also comes from the mind?

Please help
Fichtner4

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

When we speak of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we are not speaking of the muscle that pumped blood through His body. When we speak figuratively of the heart, we refer to the very innermost and essential part of ourselves which distinguishes us from everyone else. We speak of it as the core of who we are. Actually ‘cors’ is the word for heart in Latin.

So if we say a person is ‘kind hearted,’ we mean that he is kind through and through. To have a change of heart is to change a very basic attitude that we previously had. Often we speak of the heart as reflecting our feelings as opposed to our minds which consist of our reasoning faculties. We actually need both heart and mind which should compliment each other.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.