With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life
by Henri J. M. Nouwen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Henri J. M. NouwenIllustrator: Duccio
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2003-09
ISBN: 1570755086
Number of pages: 100
Publisher: Orbis Books
Book Reviews of With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life
Book Review: A manual for letting go of pain and loss
Summary: 5 Stars
Henri Nouwen introduces a new and life-changing idea: living losses Eucharistically. He starts by acknowledging that life is full of "dark" and "agonizing" losses: "It is a world of endless losses, and many, if not most, of our fellow human beings walk with faces downcast on the surface of this planet." We go through life mourning...just like the two disciples walking to Emmaus, ruminating on their loss of Jesus.
Nouwen says that must mourn for our losses. We must "shed tears over them and allow ourselves to grieve deeply," acknowledge "the painful truth of our brokenness," and "experience the abyss of our own life" where "everything is constantly shifting and changing." In doing this, we realize that we are not the only ones with losses: in fact, all of humanity is "moaning and groaning" with the pain of losses.
Then Nouwen reveals that "there is a blessing hidden in our grief" - a gift is hidden in our tears. He says that suffering can actually lead us to gratitude. But what is the gift, and how do we recognize it? Nouwen says that "through mourning our losses we come to know life as a gift."
We need to gain a contrite heart, by realizing that our losses are connected with evil, and that there is evil in our own hearts - and so, "we are willing to take responsibility, even for the pain we didn't cause directly: blaming is converted into an acknowledgment of our own role in human brokenness." We begin to cry: "Lord have mercy". We cry out for the "healing of our cynical hearts", and we "dare to believe" that there may be a gift hidden in our pain.
We come to the Eucharistic celebration. We meet Jesus in the sacred Scriptures, though which he speaks to us. And we realize that we have a role to play in the salvation of the world: "The great temptation of our lives it to deny our role as chosen people and so allow ourselves to be trapped in the worries of our daily lives." Jesus makes our hearts burn. He encourages us to "let go of our hardened hearts and become grateful." We learn that our losses were not an end, but a "necessary way to freedom" and a "suffering leading to glory."
We receive the Eucharist, and enter into communion with Christ. "It is at that place of communion that we cry out: `God, my God, why have you abandoned me?` It is at that place, too, that our emptiness gives us the prayer: `Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.'" Because, as Nouwen explains, "Communion with Jesus means becoming like him. With him we are nailed on the cross, with him we are laid in the tomb, with him we are raised up to accompany lost travelers on their journey." We no longer belong to the world that brings us so many losses, so much pain: "There we belong to Christ and Christ to us, and with Christ we belong to God."
We are then called to bring the good news to others - we have a mission. We must learn to listen to their losses, and then to tell them: "Didn't you know that what you are complaining about can also be lived as a way to something new? Maybe it is impossible to change what has happened to you, but you are still free to choose how to live it." We can lead them "from despair to hope, and from bitterness to gratitude...breaking through the boundaries of death." There is a light that shines in the darkness.
This very basic summary, leaving much out, only scratches the surface. Nouwen proposes a truly radical and profound way of living life with joy and gratitude rather than resentment, anger, bitterness and disillusionment. What Nouwen proposes takes much thought and much effort, and it is not necessarily immediately easy to understand. But for those who want to try, his book offers a way out of pain and suffering through the only means that can truly liberate us: Christ.
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