My friends, in the heart of every man there is the desire for a house. Even more so in the young person’s heart there is a great longing for a proper house, a stable house, one to which he can not only return with joy, but where every guest who arrives can be joyfully welcomed. There is a yearning for a house where the daily bread is love, pardon, and understanding. It is a place where the truth is the source out of which flows peace of heart. There is a longing for a house you can be proud of, where you need not be ashamed and where you never fear its loss. These longings are simply the desire for a full, happy, and successful life. Do not be afraid of this desire! Do not run away from this desire! Do not be discouraged at the sight of crumbling houses, frustrated desires, and faded longings. God the Creator, who inspires in young hearts an immense yearning for happiness, will not abandon you in the difficult construction of the house called life.
(Meeting with the Young People, Poland, May 27, 2006)

Lorenzo Albacete
(New York Times Magazine Editorialist)
It was in his Christmas Day Message to the world this year that Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of the biblical concept of “heart” as essential for understanding the drama of human life at the beginning of this third millennium. The Church proclaims Jesus Christ as the “Savior” of the world, but the Pope wondered whether the men and women of today experience or even understand the need for a Savior. Understanding of the biblical concept of heart is essential for a proper grasp of the Pope’s teaching about how the Church contributes to the drama of human life as experienced in our times. Already in Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI had written: “The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.” The contribution of the Catholic faith is to bring about that “broadening of reason” or “openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good” which allows all to grasp human needs in terms of the totality of reality. Without this contribution, the most well-intended responses to human needs degenerate into an ideology that “demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human” (DCE, 28). As Fr. Giussani taught again and again from the beginning, the Christian claim will not be understood nor make any cultural contribution unless we follow this lead: “To meet Christ, we must first formulate our human problem seriously” (The Journey to Truth Is an Experience, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, p. 54). Without knowledge of what constitutes the human heart–in particular, the need for Infinity that defines us as human–Jesus Christ remains just a name. “Solutions” to the drama of life soon become ideological. A friend recently noted that here “in the United States it is easier to say Jesus than to say heart.” Concerning the current political campaign, for example, it is clear that religion remains one of its important components. The “God vote” will still play a part in its final outcome. On the one hand, the Republican party seeks ways not to lose the support of the “Christian right,” and Democratic Party candidates hire consulting firms that will make them seem familiar with the language and values of the religious communities. In this context, it is easy to appeal to the teachings of Jesus, as long as the discussion remains at the moralistic level.
The only point of reference that can break through this reduction of the Christian proposal is the “heart,” where the nature and extent of the human need for salvation is experienced. It is at this deepest level of human existence that human and divine love meet, reason triumphs over sentimentality, politics touches faith, and a truly human culture is born.