The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” —Psalms 34:18
To start our journey into the ministry there are a few things we must first understand. The broken heart and contrite spirit are key because this is the sacrifice we, as Christians, must make, and that we, as ministers, must teach. When teaching the people He had gathered in the Americas, Jesus did away with the sacrificing of animals. He asked for something more personal when he told them, “ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 4:49 [9:20]) . But what does this mean?
The Agency of Mankind
Before we explain the broken heart, please note that everyone and everything has a spirit. The Creation was spiritual before it was physical. Even before the spiritual creation we existed as intelligence throughout all eternity. You are eternal with God. Yet here upon the earth we’ve been separated from God as if by a veil. Realizing this begins the process of remembering who we are, and Who’s we are known as teshuvah.
The Ego asks two questions: what and who. God answers both questions with the same answer: Jesus Christ.
As we learn the answers to these questions, gaining a personal relationship with God, we are awakened. Our hearts break upon remembering who we are, in the light of what we’ve become, and the soul is born. The light is being separated from the darkness. This is why the first two principles of the Gospel are to believe in Christ and repentance. Christ is the iron rod, the Word of God, leading to the tree of life, out of the darkness and into the light. And, this is why it is called being “born again,” our soul is born as our spirit is healed from our mortal sins.
The Thirst
There is nothing as whole as a broken heart.” -Kotsker Rebbe (Hasidic rabbi, 1787-1859)
In Kabbalah there is a story of a man trying to drink from a stream of fresh flowing water. He is thirsty but cannot drink because the water tastes bitter. He curses the stream. And, in his anger he continues to be frustrated by his thirst. This despite the freely available water. Then, upon closer inspection he sees his kli or cup is dirty. After cleaning his cup, he can drink in abundance, and enjoy the water, never again to thirst (S. Vinokur The Secrets of the Eternal Book p. 112).
The water in this story represents the Love of God. The mercy of Jesus Chrsit is the freely flowing water. The cup is our hearts, our “kli,” Hebrew for “vessel.” God gives us nothing but good, that which is best for us. But this water tastes dirty to us until we clean our cups. This is why we erceive pain in our world. Pain gives us perspective, allowing us to enjoy the pleasure (2 Nephi 1:111-115 [2:2:22-25]). In addition, it allows us to grow so we are not simply slaves to the light (2 Nephi 1:81-82 RAV, 2:11a-b OPV) . This realization is the broken heart. We stop blaming God and realize it is us, the heart—the kli—that is dirty.
A broken heart is known to the Kabbalist as the point in the heart. According to Director Semion Vinokur, “The ‘heart’ symbolizes all the egoistic desires of this world, while the ‘point in the heart’ is the Creator’s sprout. It can also be likened to a lifeline that the Creator lowers into our world, so we can grab it and rise to Him” (The Secrets of the Eternal Book
p. 32) .
This “point in the heart” is a prayer written on our hearts, a plea to God. This happens because one feels in their heart the reality of God. Our perspective has now changed. We realize Ego has taken us from the path. We now wish for teshuvah, to return to the path. One’s heart breaks as they realize they’ve been selfish. Now, through the Grace of Christ, we wish to be healed. Because the light has been divided from the darkness, our hearts are broken. We seek spiritual pleasures (the light) rather than personal or “worldly” pleasures of the flesh (the darkness). We have been born again in Jesus Christ.
Dividing the Light from the Darkness
Our hearts are kli (Hebrew, “vessels”) that wish to be filled. Until we know God, this vessel is filled by Ego; our desires. Once our hearts are pierced the kli is filled, the light of God’s Love pours from us through altruism. Even now, the earth is flooded, as in the days of Noah, with Ego. This harms us spiritually, economically, and as we’ve seen it’s destroying the earth. To fix this, we must continue dividing the light from the darkness throughout our lives, as we grow in degrees in Christ’s Grace.
Imagine the world as it might be in ten years or so if this flood of Egoism isn’t stopped. Climate change is creating super storms that are growing larger and more violent. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing; pitting man against man, neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and sister against sister. The older generation blames the younger generation, and vice versa. Wars are escalating, and there are constant rumors, hints and whispers of new wars on the horizon. In short, the overwhelming power of Egoism is destroying us; it’s destroying the world.
In contrast, imagine now what would happen to the world if all mankind would come to God with broken hearts. With their hearts pierced, God’s Love would flood the earth, washing away the Ego. Rather than only helping ourselves, we would help one another in the spirit of ubuntu. Rather than simply taking from the earth, we would give back, caring for it as God has commanded us (Genesis 2:15) . Instead of wars, we would work together reaping the benefits of unity, building, and trade. How much better things would be for all of us then!
The Pierced Heart
How do we do this? What is this pierced heart? It is a prayer. It is the true prayer. It’s not a vocal prayer, not even a prayer recited in our minds. It is a prayer in our hearts; it is a plea to God. More than this, the pierced heart is a sincere plea to God inscribed in our very souls. It mergers our eternal spiritual selves and our mortal, physical selves. God answers this plea the moment one’s heart is broken. We pray in our hearts for deliverance, and God obliges us immediately (Alma 3:25-29 [5:12-14]) . Christ’s Grace will continue to help unify us until he has fully perfected us, body and soul, at the resurrection.
This prayer comes to us the moment, in our most desperate hour, that we realize we are nothing without God and desire nothing more than to be one with God (Avahr 5:5-17) . In this moment we are Born Again. This prayer determines our perception. Not our will, but God’s will be done. We are not victims of circumstance, but blessed by God in all things, even our struggles and challenges. Rather than pure Ego or blind Altruism we
would find the balance that would enrich lives by doing God’s will, blessing all. As we grow in Grace, our perception continues to grow, changing our reality.
A Contrite Spirit
Once the heart has been pierced and broken, upon realizing the harm Ego has caused, we feel guilt. This sorrow and remorse is expressed through our contrite spirits. Merriam-Webster defines “contrite” as one “feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming.” This is a natural part of teshuvah as we separate the darkness of Ego and move into the light of altruism.
While the broken heart helps draw us back, nearer to God, the contrite spirit allows us to right wrongs and mend harms done by Ego. There by, we become more like Elohim; the Creator, our Heavenly Parents. We know good from evil, we’re separating the light from the darkness. The broken, pierced heart has borne the fruit of faith in Jesus Christ. The contrite spirit brings us deeper, into repentance. And this has been required from the Fall of Adam and Eve.
As Moved by the Spirit
These repairs, the act of repentance, cannot be made by us alone. They can only be performed with the help of Christ’s Grace. Further, our works cannot save us. They do not perfect us in any way. We’ve already been perfected in Christ. When we do any works, we are merely following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So why do we do them? Because we cannot help it. Christ’s Grace has transformed us. Our perception, our reality, has changed. Our new actions are prompted by the contrite spirit within us and bears testimony to God, ourselves, and the world that we are saved.
If you catch yourself thinking this way, it means the point in the heart has awakened within you and is drawing you to the Creator. If you don’t want this incarnation going to waste, follow your point and listen to your inner voice.” —Semion Vinokur, The Secrets of the Eternal Book, p. 66
Washed Clean
This is why the Savior taught further that “whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (3 Nephi 4:50 RAV, 9:20 OPV) . It’s not the laying on of hands that baptizes us in fire, we’re washed clean even before baptism by water.
We are washed by the cleansing light of God as our hearts are pierced and broken. The dirty cup filled by Ego is scrubbed clean and purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit. The further we grow in Grace, the deeper we are pierced, and the more God’s light is able to flow from us. The bitter cup is now filled with clean, delicious water that never ceases. It is because we have accepted Christ and repented of our sins that the Spirit moves us to be baptized by immersion, confirmed to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and partake of the Sacrament of Communion.
The Path of Teshuvah
This is not a onetime thing. Our conversion will deepen over and over as we grow in Christ’s Grace. This is why the steps of Teshuvah are repeated over and over throughout our lives as we grow in Grace. After each day of rest, the Sabbath, the creation begins anew as we get upon the potter’s wheel and are remade into God’s image, further restored to the image Elohim created us in. This is in part what Jesus meant when he asked us to pick up our cross and follow him. His death was a pure act of altruism. It was the example of how far we will be willing to go once we are fully transformed back to our true selves.
This is also why denominations do not matter. As Christ taught, the Lamanites were baptized at the time of their conversion, by God, the change in their harts, and were completely unaware (3 Nephi 4:50 [9:20b]). When we are confirmed a member of a church, that confirmation is mirroring what has already been done spiritually here in the physical world. As above, so below; as below, so above (See Matthew 6:10).
Born Again
With a broken heart and contrite spirit, we have already been baptized into the heavenly Church of Christ, the one true church. Any earthly confirmation can bring us into one of the branches within the vineyard of that Church here on earth. Which denomination doesn’t matter, providing one is led there by the Holy Spirit. For in the Lord’s house there are many mansions (John 14:2) . So to, there are quite a few branches here on earth within God’s vineyard.
Now I will ask: have you been born again? Have you felt this mighty change through Jesus Christ upon you? Do you have this new prayer inscribed in your heart? Next, we shall explore the steps of Teshuvah that all may have a deeper relationship with God and His Christ (Revelation 11:15) . Dear reader, how I pray that you have been awakened and are beginning to remember! We know it is so when our hearts have been broken, pierced by the light. We perceive that it is good. And with this change in perception, the whole of our reality is born anew. We are a new creature, Adam or Eve, being born again unto God, finally returning to where we come from. We are on the path home.
Assignment 3: A Broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit
In more than 300 words, describe what it means to have a broken or pierced heart. In another 300 words or more, describe what it means to have a contrite spirit. And, in another 300 words or more explain how these work together. Be sure to source your references in a separate page.
Please send your written assignment to David Ferriman: dferriman@cjccf.org