Last Sunday readings teach us that everything starts in the heart, which is the source of good and evil. One’s heart can be pure or defiled and this also has an influence on the lives of others.
In the first reading we are taught the purpose of the Ten Commandments. They show us God’s Will and teach us wisdom and understanding. So, they help prevent us from messing our lives up. Adam and Eve messed things up when they forgot that God loved them, and they forgot to love Him back. This was the first seed of the Fall. If they had remembered God’s love and their obligation to return that love, they would never have disobeyed Him. Thus, Adam sinned because he took his gaze off God and tasted the forbidden fruit which was presented to him by Eve and was pleasing to eye. If he had resisted and corrected Eve, Adam would have done the first heroic act of his life and would not have fallen.
Although the Commandments are written on the hearts of all, God gave the Ten Commandments in written form on stone tablets through Moses. This is because when sin entered the world people’s consciences had become dulled and hearts hardened. So, people need to know the Natural Law in black and white. The first three commandments are about love of God and the other seven about love of neighbour. All the Commandments can be summed in in love for God and neighbour. By obeying them, we grow in wisdom and understanding.
In the second reading, St James urges us to be doers of the word. But what usually comes to us through the media says something different. It says that if it feels good, do it. But this attitude is disastrous because people become slaves to their appetites, whether to alcohol, drugs, porn or lust in general. The real problem today in society is moral pollution and lack of respect for human dignity. Many young people with addictions end up destroying themselves in trying to feel good.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus focuses on purity of heart. The Pharisees were focused only on the externals, such as ritual washings and avoiding certain foods etc. They had lost sight of the bigger picture. Jesus declared all foods clean, and He said:
Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. For it is from within, form men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.
The spirit of lust has caused havoc in the world today and there is a great need for spiritual healing. Jesus gave us the remedy for sin in the Sacrament of Confession, instituted by Him on the evening of rising from the dead. He is completely aware of our struggles of living in the neo pagan world of today and has emphasised the important of this sacrament especially through the messages to St Faustina Kowalska. However, the Sacrament doesn’t work like a vending machine, where we get the item we want (whether a drink of snack) for the right price, regardless of our interior attitude. For example, if a Penitent comes to Confession and is not truly sorry for his or her sins there is no real forgiveness. There must be true sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment when one comes to Confession. Just as a beggar can’t receive an offering without putting out his or her hand, so God’s grace always works from within, starting with the heart, when we are fully open to it.
Our hearts are like a garden, where to make the virtues grow, they need water and fertilizer. That is, prayer and the sacraments. We also need to pull the weeds out regularly when they appear. We do this in Confession. St James urges us to practice charity towards all. The more one practices charity from the heart, the more love grows in one’s heart. The person with a defiled heart is unable to love selflessly because their heart has become hardened. But the one with a pure heart is truly able to love unconditionally.
The Commandments and authentic Magisterial Teaching of the Church provides sure signposts along the road to Heaven. They clearly show us God’s Will. In today’s world, where sin abounds, grace is abounding more and we have now been given the Book of Heaven. These are the writings of Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta. There was some great news last month about Luisa, the nihil obstat for the resumption of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta has been issued. This was announced by the Postulator of the Cause, Msgr. Paolo Rizzi, in a note dated August 10, 2024. The time we are living is the time to enter into the Divine Will, which is the gift lost by our First Parents, Adam and Eve and which is being restored in our day. If firstly one desires it and then lives in the Divine Will, the night of the passions, weaknesses and miseries are turned into day, into divine strength. We grow more and more in God’s likeness and union with our Creator by living in His Adorable Will. This is the source of every blessing. So, let’s desire this gift and allow Jesus to do everything in and through us in His Adorable Will. There is a useful website worth checking out in order to know more: https://www.littlechildreninthedivinewill.com/geraldine-ryan
Praise by Jesus Christ, now and forever!