The Perfect Human Heart, by Joan Watson

By Joan Watson, Integrated Catholic, June 11, 2021

Joan Watson was born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, but college and graduate school took her to Virginia, Ohio, and Rome.  …

“To love with a human heart is to accept the possibility of a broken human heart.”

I stood on the Mount of Olives and looked across at Jerusalem, the skyline a mix of old and new. The light blue dome of the Holy Sepulchre seemed to almost touch the dominant gold Dome of the Rock, and the Western Wall was invisible to my eye but present in my thoughts. I saw a crowded Mount Moriah that visibly proclaimed complexity and tragedy.

Over 150,000 graves cover the Mount of Olives, facing the city and the site of the Temple. These are Jews awaiting the resurrection of the dead, when they believe the Messiah will come and rebuild the Temple. Their feet are facing the Temple Mount, ready for his coming. I stood there, on the spot tradition tells us Jesus wept over the city. “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.  …