What is the Heart ?

[Prince_Hal]

I am told that when the Scriptures use the word “heart” it does not mean your emotions - as we use it today.

What does it mean, and what is the scriptural basis for this other meaning ?

God bless,

Hal.

 

[GEddie]

I am told that when the Scriptures use the word “heart” it does not mean your emotions - as we use it today.

What does it mean, and what is the scriptural basis for this other meaning ?

God bless,

Hal.

Try:

[1] bible-history.com/isbe/H/HEART/

and

[2] calvarybiblechurch.org/calvary_review.aspx/2004/07/6

Note the excerpt from [2]

"The heart is the very center of our inner life, the initiating force behind all the functions of soul and spirit. Everything that we ascribe in our society to the head and the brain — the power of perception, reason, understanding, insight, consciousness, memory, knowledge, reflection, judgment, sense of direction, and discernment — all of these functions are included in the Biblical understanding of heart.

Ultimately, the “heart” is the entire inner being, the corpus of everything we are as mankind, except for the physical nature."

God Bless and ICXC NIKA!

 

[Nita]

There is a close link - if not an actual equating - of the “heart” to our “conscience”.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a6.htm
1776 “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.”

1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

 

[Prince_Hal]

Thanks everyone. That is a great help.

 

[peary2]

Without the physical organ of the heart, there would not be a living human being. That is why the heart has always been considered the seat of the soul. Without it, the physical body would not work and the soul would not be formed.

In the spiritual sense when we speak about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are referring to the Lord’s all-encompassing life within the Body of Christ, His Church, and that includes you, me, and everyone else within it. Because He is resurrected, He is also within us as a Being, and we are within Him. His Heart beats for us and keeps us all alive in Him. Some may disagree with this notion, but when you think about it, it make sense.