Start with the Heart

“He has set before you fire and water…stretch forth your hand…life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him…” Sirach 15:15-17

Choices.

Choices are what movies are about and are what keep us up at night.  When we do our examen at night, we think about the choices that we’ve made.

What about a big choice you made that altered your life.  Can you think about it? this job vs that, that school vs that other one? your spouse vs that other past love?

That’s one type of choice, one where you’re choosing between two goods.  That’s where we live as Christians.  Our life is full of those kinds of choices, as simple as Italian food vs steak (two good things), as complicated as whether to be a nun or get married (both good things).

Then there’s the other kind of choice, the one where we are face to face with our humanity, should I do wrong or do good? St. Paul says, “Detest what is evil, cling to what is good” 1 Thes. 5:21

Easy enough, but he also says in Romans, “Everybody lies” (3:4).

Which means that we would like to be in the realm of the first option, choosing between two goods, but we are often in the second realm, and entirely enticed by the evil we should not do.

Should I go to bed now or can I watch another episode? One more drink? Its fun to flirt with that person, its fine isn’t it?  I don’t have to study do I, I’ll have fun now and wing it tomorrow on the test!

Because  as St. Paul says elsewhere, “When I want to do good, evil is at hand.” Rom 7:21

And what does God want? “He understands man’s every deed.  No one does he command to act unjustly… to sin” (Sir 15:20)

Sermon on the Mount

Christ here is very direct, very clear, as to what he expects of us.  It is a long Gospel, and one that I wish we heard more often.  Jesus understands the choices that we make, “He understands man’s every deed.” And He’s not just waiting for us to trip up, as it says in Psalm 35:27-28 “Great is the Lord who delights in the peace of his servant.”

He understands not just our choices, but the heart that deliberated the choice.  Don’t kill! Good, but do you hate your brother, your sister, especially once we’re in the Church together.  Do you wish harm upon them? death? hell?

Stop yourself, get to Confession, end the movement of anger and hatred in your heart and exteriorly

Don’t commit adultery.

But the heart? The heart had already deceived you, how many times before?  Stop the lust and watching anything or hanging out with anyone that doesn’t help you to be chaste.

Don’t Divorce

Marry very cautiously.  The marriage covenant is between spouses and God. God draws you into his life and allows you to marry, and then bring in children into the faith through the believing parents.  Is there divorce in God?  God forbid!

I sympathize with anyone who has had to go through a secular divorce, because humans are involved, and I know it wasn’t all your fault.

But the teaching here is clear, if that first marriage wasn’t valid, for one reason or another, get the Church’s declaration of nullity, and then you’d be free to remarry, please don’t put your soul in jeopardy by jumping into another “marriage-like relationship.”

In any case, many bad choices, many selfish choices are made in a divorce, either by one party but usually by both?

Don’t lie

Especially to God.

I’m impressed how often this comes up in Scripture, Last Sunday from Is. 58 “Remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech.”  The Sunday before from Zeph. 3:13 They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; nor shall there be found in their mouths, a deceitful tongue;

Things come up in life.  God knows this.  He allows us to go through difficult things so that we can honor Him even in the temptation and difficult times, that you may shine as lights in the world (Phil 2:15).

Again, we all lie, but Christ wants to share his heart with yours, and His heart is a heart that never lies.  “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine”

Our Lady of Lourdes

Today is the first appearance of our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette who was chosen by Our Lady to be her special messenger of healing:

Brother Ernest, described her as "still a frail child, greatly troubled by asthma, quiet, devoted to the recitation of her rosary." Bernadette went to confession at church, telling the priest who was preparing her for First Communion, that she had seen the "Lady." …the "Lady" revealed herself to Bernadette, and asked her to make a promise: to return to the grotto every day for 15 days. Bernadette promised and the "Lady" shared with Bernadette, "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next." https://biography.yourdictionary.com/bernadette-of-lourdes