Head to Heart

A Reflection on the Second Reading for August 1st, 2021:
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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EPHESIANS
4:17, 20-24

17 Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; 20 You did not so learn Christ! -- 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. 22 Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

Hi. My name is Aurea and I am an overthinker. I will anticipate every outcome, valid or not. More than once my overthinking has caused me to miss out on an opportunity or frozen me from taking action. Sometimes I just can’t get out of my own way! That’s what I hear when Saint Paul tells the Gentiles not to live “in the futility of their minds”.


Living in my head is not a good place to be. I end up considering every detail of events, presentations, plans, over and over again to make sure I’ve covered everything. And more often than not, I get bogged down by the details and forget the bigger picture. I lose sight of the reason I’m doing what I’m doing. You can know something (head) or you can really know something (heart). Knowing with my head is important for details, knowing with my heart is what helps me to know why. Twenty-one years ago, I was overseeing a pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2000 to Rome. Exciting? Yes. Ripe with opportunities to overthink? YES! After ten days of blood, sweat, and tears — sometimes literally — our group was headed home exhausted but also encouraged and on fire for the Lord. As I walked up and down the aisle of our plane checking in with folks on the flight home, one young man looked at me with a huge smile on his face and said, “Aurea, I never understood the meaning of the saying: ‘You only get as much as you put in’, until this trip. It’s really true!” Suddenly an axiom he had been taught made sense. We had spent 10 days challenging ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. There were days I was so physically and mentally tried from my responsibilities that all I had left to pull me through was the Spirit. To push myself that hard, left me vulnerable; vulnerable to Christ and all that He taught me. In my weakness, I needed to rely on Christ’s strength.  Our experience renewed what we knew not only in our heads, but also so deeply in our hearts; that Christ lived, died, rose from the dead, and lives in each of us and all who believe. When I reach for that certainty, I can get out of my head and enter my heart to see, hear, and understand things differently. I can remember that I am a gifted and graced daughter of God — who has work do! Suddenly, like that young man, the things of Christ that I have been taught become real.


The things we’ve been taught become real when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable; when we let them move from our heads to our hearts. However, vulnerability isn’t easy or comfortable. It has been said that the longest distance to travel is between your head and your heart. Christ did not come to change minds, Christ came to change hearts. He was willing to go the distance. Are we?




Aurea Sadi

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