‘Plenus Pectus’
A“full heart” was the ideal of the young, energetic and very passionate football coach and player and was also the animating motto for his team Socceroo. Unlike “cor” which literally means heart, the term “pectus” refers more to ‘chest’ even though it may also be translated as heart. Perhaps, by having a “full chest” one meant having a “full heart” or of being passionate about living life to the full.
Wool, the athlete’s name, amusingly had the habit of writing 100% before his nickname. I personally believe that he was serious about this because he wanted to be consistent with his motto even in the smallest details like post-it-notes to loved ones ending with trademark: 100% Wool.
Reflecting more on these ideals, I don’t think Wool was someone attempting to leave behind an enormous legacy to be remembered. He was just passionate about the key responsibilities he had inherited at 23 when his father died. He filled in for his father’s absence and continued to be a brother and a friend to his siblings. In this unexpected chapter of his life, his capacity for “passion-love” grew even greater. So what was Wool’s legacy? We could say it was every single day lived 100% with a full heart.
If things had turned out differently for Wool, then would “plenus pectus” still be his theme? Alas, there is no telling the end to such a question and other possibilities. Everyone is given one life he or she is supposed to fully engage and generously share. I am of the opinion, that however life might have been for Wool, he would have lived it full heartedly for God and his loved ones.
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These ideas about passion and sports, led me to ask myself: Is there anyone, and to be more precise an athlete in history who is best known for playing his sport passionately? I think there is one person who has outdone everyone in his passion to engage the game-sport we call life. His passion was beyond all human understanding. In fact, the summit of his life was called a passion. This athlete of life is Christ.
Jesus was so passionate about really living because He wanted to show us how as we only have one chance at it. If we play this life as God desires, then we will win by attaining our true end in Heaven. But God’s game, like any game, has rules. And there is no true game without rules.
Rules or conditions are set so that we may not only play a game right, but in so doing we may also enjoy playing it. Thus, our Lord paved the way with His example: He accepted His Father’s invitation to save mankind by becoming man and unconditionally placing His life as a ransom to redeem us. It was, as Scripture sings, “his delight to be with the sons of men, playing with them all day. (Prov. 8)”
Likewise, if we are to live and enjoy the game God has set for us, we cannot place conditions before God. Sometimes, there are moments in life that are difficult to understand: when the rules may be a bit burdensome, when it seems that we aren’t gaining any ground, or perhaps when boredom and discouragement creep in and we refuse to continue playing.
These are the very moments of our life that God seems “to be playing with us.” In reality, He isn’t playing as one would make fun of another, rather our Lord is really with us in the field of life, playing and urging us to go on until we make a goal. Frequently, the lesson for the day, as it is with the rest of life, is that: “if we want to WIN in this game, we must allow our Lord to win.”
Thus, we must be ready to remove our conditions (i.e. our pride, material attachments, insecurities, anger, etc.) that are nothing but obstacles to God’s making a goal of His daily grace into our hearts. Or would we just put it as: we must learn to often allow God to make His “free KICK” into our life! And what seemed to be a trial, an agony, a misunderstanding, a loss or separation, etc., are now all understood to be within God’s divine playing field.
We must make it our passion in life “plenus pectus”, that of embracing whatever it may be that God wants, even unexpectedly, so that He may win us to Himself. And in the end, we are more convinced that only He can make us holy, only He can give us grace and forgiveness, and only He can give us Heaven. And we achieve this if we full-heartedly (that is, 100% in love) desire to correspond in playing and winning life’s game with God and His unfailing grace.
