Get the heart right, Jesus is saying, and all else falls into place.

Eighth Sunday of OT  C  2019

For the 3^rd consecutive Sunday, the Gospel has been taken from Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount.  The last two Sundays we have been invited to reflect on what to do.  The Beatitudes call us to a way of life in which our values are turned upside down.  “Blessed are the Poor;  Blessed are they who hunger;  Blessed are they who mourn.  These people are most in touch with the spiritual dimension of life.  They more clearly know their need for God's grace. 

 

Last Sunday the Gospel calls us to love even our enemies.  That doesn’t come naturally for any one of us.  It’s not in our genes.    It is only with the grace of God and the example of Jesus himself that we are empowered to love our enemies.

This Sunday’s Gospel tells us how we can live out our discipleship of Christ Jesus in which we are called to love our enemies.    Where the Gospel last week dealt with action towards others, now we seem to have something that is trying to reach deeper: to the wellspring of action found in the human heart. Get the heart right, Jesus seems to be saying, and all else will follow.

The Gospel theme this week is:  Get the heart right and all else falls into place. Religion, and above all judgment made in the name of religion, must proceed from conversion of heart.

This weekend we had a pre-cana session with couples preparing for their wedding day.  Pre-Cana is the spiritual preparation for the sacrament of marriage.  If the couples have their heart right in their love for each other, all else will fall into place.

Plain and simple, the conversion we seek must come from the inside.  We need to be aware of our inner life, our interior life if we are to live out the Gospel demands in our outer life.  Jesus in the Gospel proclaims the tree cannot bear good fruit unless the core of the trunk of the tree is solid.  “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, not does a rotten tree bear good fruit.  For every tree is known by its own fruit.”  So too, a good person out of the store of the goodness in his heart produces good fruit, for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

Yes, we are all capable of wearing masks.  Some of us are very good at wearing masks.  We seek to make a good impression; put our best foot forward.   However, if our masks do not come from the depths of our hearts, they can easily take on the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.

I confess to wearing a mask at times that wants to give the impression that I don’t have a fragile, vulnerable side, that I have it all-together. That’s a mask I sometimes wear but it is not my best self.  Many of us struggle to acknowledge the various masks we wear to cover our weaknesses, our demons.

The Gospel today further explain the meaning of the words of Jesus:  Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”  When we witness to the mercy of Jesus, it enables us to get the heart right.

Jesus opens today’s Gospel account with a parable:  “Can a blind person guide a blind person?  Will not both fall into a pit?”  This leads to ask what blindness Jesus is talking about?  I suggest for our prayer today we see the blind guides that Jesus refers are leaders who don’t know their own need for mercy, who have not experienced mercy, and who therefore cannot act with mercy.

The Penitential Rite is part of the beginning rites of our Eucharistic celebration.  For us to enter into the mystery of God’s presence among us, we first acknowledge our need for the healing forgiveness of God.  Before receiving Communion, we humbly pray:  “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

The genuineness of our leadership is dependent upon our humility and our humble recognition that we need the mercy of a forgiving God and we are to share this mercy with others,

Jesus shows the meaning of mercy as He called people beyond their faults.  In fact, the only people   Jesus ever called condemned were those who chose to ignore the invitation of Jesus and refused to admit their need for conversion and growth.

The cross of Jesus is His great act of love for us.  We encounter the mercy, the forgiveness, and the love of Jesus for us.

Jesus didn’t promise to give anyone perfect knowledge or judgment, only the power to forgive without limits – a faculty that presumes that we all make a good share of mistakes.

Please God   we are always aware that we are sinners who stand in need of a forgiving, healing God.  As we approach Ash Wednesday, the ashes to be placed on our foreheads announce that the light of Christ that is burning within us is dimmed.  It has been darkened by sim symbolized by the ashes on our foreheads.  With these ashes, we are confessing and announcing we stand in need of God’s forgiveness.  Further, we commit ourselves to the penitential season so that we will be reconciled with God and so prepare  ourselves  for the joy of Easter.  The ashes we receive are blessed ashes, holy ashes, and they hold the promise of cleansing protection and, most importantly, the promise of resurrection.

Our upcoming Lenten journey invites us to become more aware of our inner life, our spiritual life before God.  The Lenten season invites us to accept the disciplines of prayer, fasting and self-denial.  In following these spiritual disciplines, we come to know the Gospel Good News.  The Good news is precisely this:  it tells us about a God who gives first, loves first, who loves unconditionally, who loves us whether we deserve it or not. 

May the spiritual disciplines of Lent lead us to an image of a God who loves us unconditionally.  What is our response to this God?   We gather in the Eucharistic celebration to give thanks to the Lord our God.  Because of God’s extravagant love for us, we are grateful and we seek to share that love with one another. 

Have a Blessed Day