I PRAY much to have a wise heart, and perhaps the rediscovery of Lady Julian of Norwich will help me...

One of her most telling and central convictions is her orientation to what one might call an eschatological secret, the hidden dynamism which is at work already and by which 'all manner of thing shall be well.' This 'secret,' this act which the Lord keeps hidden, is really the full fruit of the Parousia. It is not just that 'He comes,' but He comes with with this secret to reveal, He comes with this final answer to all the world's anguish, this answer which is already decided, but which we cannot discover (and which, since we think we have reasoned it all out anyway) we have stopped trying to discover. Actually, her life was lived in the belief in this 'secret,' the 'great deed' that the Lord will do on the Last Day, not a deed of destruction and revenge, but of mercy and of life, all partial expectations will be exploded and everything will be made right. It is the great deed of 'the end,' which is still secret, but already fully at work in the world, in spite of all its sorrow, the great deed 'ordained by Our Lord from without beginning...'

This is, for her, the heart of theology: not solving the contradiction, but remaining in the midst of it, in peace, knowing that it is fully solved, but that the solution is secret, and will never be guessed until it is revealed.

To have a "wise heart," it seems to me, is to live centered on this dynamism and this secret hope-this hoped-for secret. It is the key to our life, but as long as we are alive we must see that we do not have this key: it is not at our disposal. Christ has it, in us, for us. We have the key insofar as we believe in Him, and are one with Him. So this is it: the 'wise heart' remains in hope and in contradiction, in sorrow and in joy, fixed on the secret and the 'great deed' which alone gives Christian life its true scope and dimensions!
The wise heart lives in Christ.
Thomas Merton