Become Whole-Hearted

     “An obvious sign of attachments is also your sadness in situations when God takes something away from you. He will, therefore, take that by which you are enslaved – hence everthing that is your greatest enemy, that which causes your heart not to be free for Him. It is when you start to accept this and do it cheerfully that you will become more and more free.
     During prayer in the presence of the Lord, show Him not only your empty but also dirty hands, defiled by the attachments to mammon, and pray that He will have mercy on you. Prayer can develop only in the atmosphere of freedom. As a disciple of Christ, you are called to prayer; and that is to contemplative prayer. For your prayer to become contemplation – that is, a loving gaze on Jesus Christ, your beloved – a free heart is essential. That is why Christ fights so much for your heart to be free. He fights through various events, through difficulties and storms, by putting you in difficult situations, all the while giving you a chance to cooperate intensively with grace. In all these situations, Christ expects that you will try to cleanse your heart, soiled by attachments and servitude to mammon. In this way, all these difficulties and all the storms are a grace for you. They are the passing by of the Merciful Lord, who loves you so much that He wants to give you this magnificent fight – the gift of total freedom of your heart. Your heart should not be divided, it should be a heart solely for Him.                                                                                                                                               To have faith means to see and understand your life’s sense in accordance with the Gospel – God is most important. Your life is to be aimed at Him: to seek and build primarily His kingdom believing that everything else will be given to you (Mt 6:33). God wants to bestow on each person all His love. However, He can gift a person only to the extent of his openness, of his readiness to be stripped of attachments, so that room may be made for Him. It is faith that creates in us this emptiness and vacuum for God.                                                                                                                                         Father Tadeusz Dajczer



     God wants your heart – your whole heart. He also wants you to be free, to love Him as you should. Jesus became man, suffered and died in order to give you this gift of freedom. Walk in that grace, realizing that it was bought with the blood of Christ.


     “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8: 36).

     We all have inordinate attachments, and often do not realize it until something or someone is taken from us, or we don’t have, what we judge, “our just fill of them.” Our feelings of sadness to our deprivation can alert us to discover our inordinate attachments. We need to be free of these attachments and enjoy God’s gifts as He intended. We have to look deep into our minds and hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us anyone or anything that keep us from loving God as He so deserves.  

      “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Due 6:5). “You shall not have no other gods before Me” (Due 5:7). “You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex 34:14).

     How does something that God meant for your good become disordered in your life? How does this happen?

     It’s typically a very gradual process which usually starts out as something good. You have found something or someone you truly enjoy. But little by little, you discover yourself thinking about it more and more. It is calling for your time and focus more often than it should. It is becoming your “all and everything.” It doesn’t seem to be able to satisfy you like it could in the beginning. It has made its way into your heart and wants to take full possession!      

     Disordered attachments can vary. They can be our spouse, children, friends, success, good looks, our will, possessions, food, drink, drugs, sex, our time, control, the internet, or anything we use in a way God did not intend, or that takes the place God should hold in our heart.

     We usually run to these attachments when we are feeling empty, lonely, forgotten, weary, hopeless, exasperated, burdened or stressed. We have the false illusion that they have the power to make us feel better. We expect them to fill us up with what is lacking in our hearts and lives. They cannot! Only God can fill that whole in our heart. We need to believe that and run to Him instead.

     Fr. Dajczer assures us -- God wants to us to be free. He does not want us to be enslaved to anything or to anyone. Presenting ourselves before God with not only empty, but dirty hands, which are defiled by our attachments, is a good start. We must come to prayer and beg for God’s mercy. Ask for the grace and strength to acknowledge the fact that our hearts are divided. As the Holy Spirit reveals your inordinate attachments to you, expect a battle. The evil one does not want your heart to belong solely to God. He wants you to be enslaved to “other gods,” who will leave your heart divided and empty of life.

     When the battle for your heart begins, stand firm, asking God for the strength and perseverance to be strong. Pray for an increase in faith, that God will fill your heart of all that it is lacking. Ask that He begin to heal the wounds that set you on the path to look for “other gods” in the first place. Go to the sacrament of Reconciliation. Putting God’s light on the darkness of your heart is invaluable. Picture in your mind, your crucified Lord. As you gaze upon the bloodied face of Christ, anticipate God’s help. He has already won this battle for you.

     You are a child of God and He will not abandon you in your time of need. Christ became incarnate, to free us from our sins and inordinate attachments. He will send you the grace you need to overcome yourself.

     “Because He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested. ‘Oh, that today you would hear His voice, harden not your hearts as at the day of testing in the desert. Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God” (Hb 2:18, Hb 3:7-8, 12).

     Do not forsake the living God. Cooperate with God’s grace, as He allows the storms and difficult situations of life to give you an opportunity to move toward freedom. See each opportunity as a graced moment, where the Lord is present to assist you in achieving this freedom of heart. Do not be afraid to die to your inordinate needs, so you will receive all the love God has intended for you.

     Do not be greedy. Let go of all disordered attachments, so God can fill you. Pray for faith and trust as you try to put God first. It is not as easy battle, but God will be with you in your struggle.

     “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides” (Mt 6:33).

     Experience true freedom, as you fight against the enemy – your inordinate attachments – and with God's grace and help, you will become “whole-hearted” for God.