A closed heart forgets God. It does not remember the one in whom we live and move and have our being; it loses track of the Mystery always around us. A closed heart and exile go together. Self-preoccupied, turned inward upon itself, the shut heart is cut off from a larger reality. Separated and disconnected, it is estranged and in exile. A closed heart lacks compassion. In the Bible, compassion is the ability to feel the feelings of another at a level lower than one’s head, “in the womb,” “in the bowels,” and then to act accordingly. A closed heart does not feel this. Though it can be
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