Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Just yesterday, the Pharisees and scribes were criticizing Jesus and his disciples for not following the tradition of the elders, for not keeping all the rituals. Jesus’ response then was to quote the prophet, “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Today, Jesus gathers the people and says to us that nothing that enters from the outside and goes into our stomach can defile us. What defiles is what comes out of us from our hearts - evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
I wonder, though, what about the things from the outside that enter our hearts? I am reminded of the prophet Ezekiel, through whom God reveals that God will take our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh. Soft hearts. Compassionate hearts.
I wonder again, what about the things outside of us - how do they enter our hearts and when they enter, what do they do to our hearts? Do we cooperate with God’s grace, and do they give us compassionate hearts of flesh? Or do we let them harden us and give us stony hearts from which come evil thoughts about one another, greed, lies, overconsumption of the earth’s goods, and even murder in our name? Do we still weep in a wounded world, or are we hardened in self-protection? Have we retreated to our own safe echo chambers?
I wonder, how does our social media feed, feed our hearts? How does our consumption of other media consume us? Years ago, I heard Cistercian monk Michael Casey speak to Benedictine oblates in Rome. He asked us to take a moment to add up all the time we spent on social media, watching TV, listening to music, etc., in a given week. He paused. Then he asked us to add up the amount of time we spent with the Word of God. He paused. He simply said, “Now tell me, what forms you?”
What do I let into my heart? Do I give the Word of God time to form me? When I encounter the world, how does it from me, and how can I consciously let it form in ways consistent with the gospel? How can I resist its formation when it hardens my heart against the gospel?
We have a week until Lent begins. Will you join me in pondering these questions? Perhaps, when you and I consider the tradition of our elders, the tradition of Lenten practices, we might consider not just the practice, but how it shapes our hearts. I think this is what Jesus is asking of us.
May our practices this Lent be a cooperation with God’s love for us and for the world, so that what comes from hearts might be a mirror of God’s heart and blessing from God to the world.
—Kelly Adamson