HUNGER FOR THE WORD
God's Word enlightens the mind and purifies the heart that one may
understand His ways and intentions and walk in true love. Do we hunger for the
Word of God and seek to purify our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit?
What dinner host
would not be dismayed at the guest who ate with dirty hands?
Jesus turns the
table on His accusers by scolding them for their uncleanness of heart. Which is
more important to God, clean hands and body or a clean mind and heart? The
scribes and Pharisees accused Jesus' disciples of breaking their ritual
traditions. Jesus deals with accusation by going to the heart of the matter -
by looking at God's intention and purpose for the Commandments. Jesus explains
that they void God's command with their own traditions. He accuses them
specifically of two things; first, of hypocrisy. Like actors who put on a show,
they appear to obey God's Word in their external practices while they inwardly
harbor sinful desires and intentions. Secondly, He accuses them of abandoning
God's Word by substituting their own arguments and ingenious interpretations
for what God requires. They listen to clever arguments rather than to the Word
of God.
Doesn't this all
sound like the things we hear and see in our media, newspaper, TV programs,
government, and so on? Jesus refers them to the prophecy of Isaiah where the
prophet accuses the people of honoring God with their lips while their hearts
were far away from choosing and doing what God asked of them (cf. Is 29:13).
God's Word enlightens the mind and purifies the heart that one may understand
His ways and intentions and walk in true love. Do we hunger for the Word of God
and seek to purify our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit?
Where does the
ill-will in us spring from, and what's the solution for eliminating it from our
lives? Jesus deals with this issue in response to the religious leaders'
concern with ritual defilement - making oneself unfit to offer sacrifice and
worship to God. Some of their concern was no doubt out of fear of God. For
others it was a concern about pleasing other people. Jesus points His listeners
to the source of true defilement, which comes from inside one's innermost
being. Sin does not just happen. It first springs from the interior recesses of
our thoughts and intentions; from the secret desires that only the individual
soul can conceive.
God, in His mercy,
sent His only Son to save us from our sin and weakness. But to receive His
mercy we must admit our faults. "If we say, 'We are without sin,' we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, He
is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every
wrongdoing" (1 Jn 1:8 - 9). Only God can change our hearts and make them
clean and whole through His power and forgiveness. Like a physician who probes
the wound before treating it, God through His Word and Spirit first brings it
to light that we may recognize it for what it is and call upon his mercy and
grace for pardon and healing. It is then that we are given true peace. The
Spirit of truth is the Consoler. The Spirit gifts us with the truth of
conscience and of the certainty of redemption in Jesus Christ.
When Cain was
jealous of his brother, Abel, God warned him to guard his heart, "Sin is
couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it" (Gen
4:7). Do we get those desires from time to time; are they at our door? We do
not need to entertain any sinful desires or thoughts, but instead, through the
grace of God, we can choose to put them to death rather than allow them to have
control over us. Jesus wants to change and purify our hearts, our hands, and
our bodies. He wants to dwell within us. His grace enables us to choose what is
good in our life. All we need to do is believe in the loving power of God's
love to change and transform our hearts.
In today's Second
Reading from St. James' Letter we read that "every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights..." (Jas 1:17). He gives us,
His people, this challenge, "Be doers of the word and not hearers
only..." (Jas 1:22).