And every human heart that breaks,
In prison cell or yard,
Is as that broken box that gave
Its treasure to the Lord.
And filled the unclean leper’s house
With the scent of costliest nard.
Ah! Happy they whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?
– Oscar Wilde, from The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
