Out of the treasury of one's heart

 

Fig Tree & Bird Feast ~ Ancient Egyptian Fresco

We can  hear the gospels all our lives and then, seemingly out of no where, come upon a verse we never heard before. This might be one of them:

Jesus said, "Then comes the time when many will lose their faith and will betray and hate each other. Yes, and many false prophets will arrive, and will mislead many people. Because of the spread of wickedness the love of most men will grow cold..." Matthew 24:10 ff  J.B. Phllips New Testament

or another translation

"And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold."  Matthew 24:10 ff Revised Standard Version

 

We might think, Jesus had our time in mind. Or conversely, we might think Jesus had some other people in some other time in mind. No era or generation since the days of Jesus has a corner on hate or wickedness. I'd suggest Jesus was speaking rather generically, as if to say, "This is how it is with human beings." 

I'm thinking of that other gospel we might never have heard, or so it might appear as the church gets weighted down with crisis after crisis and can wind up seeming to spend more time in the courtroom settling cases more than in the inner secret room Jesus invites us to enter, where we are to close the door and speak to our heavenly Father in intimacy.  

I remember in seminary the priest-professor going on at length as to whether or not Jesus intended to form a new religion. I don't remember his answer, but it was the beginning of my thinking that no matter the answer, what Jesus clearly did leave us was a new sense of religion that has the heart at its center. Christianity, before anything else, is a way of the heart. Christianity requires heart-work, heart-wonder, the en-spiriting of the heart. We can settle for less. 

43 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for  each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" Luke 6:43-45

 

What beautiful language Jesus uses. Three lines and the word good appears four times. Three lines and the word heart appears twice. Treasure, twice. The last sentence expresses the nature of Christ's way splendidly: "For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

In the 1987 film A Month in the Country, Colin Firth plays Tom Birkin, a young man just back from that most stupid of wars and has found a summer's job in rural Oxgodby, England. He meets the Anglican priest who lives in a huge, empty rectory with his lonely, wife. We discover at once the priest is angry, that the one thousand pound bequest is contingent upon the restoration of a medieval painting over the altar. I'd suggest he's really opposed to the restoration because he's afraid it will distract the parishioners from paying attention to him. Blinded by resentment, he couldn't be more inhospitable when the stammering veteran shows up in the soaking rain — no offer of a meal, no cup of tea, not even a room in his empty rectory. Judd is reluctantly offered a couple of feet up in the belfry. Can you think of a  more awful place for a shell-shocked soldier to be living? Come Sunday Tom watches and listens from above as the priest reads the lesson of the day — Matthew 25 — "When I was hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, sick..."  Failed religion gone off into the the weeds. 

Notice in the verses above Jesus uses the word treasure.  Treasure is what we hold on to dearly — our prejudices, our go-to defenses, our justifications, the lies we tell ourselves, our denials, our insistences, what we buy into, that has nothing to do with Christ — the authentic, whole human person. Christ — the Kingdom Man, the one who thinks God's thoughts, who lives in God's heart. 

Growing up in the 1950's and 60's, the key words of my youth were obedience and disobedience. You don't become a whole human person by simply being obedient. In the Australian TV series Brides of Christ, when things begin to change in convent life, Sister Philomena has a breakdown before the entire community and weeps, "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it." Again: we don't become whole human persons by simply being obedient.

But Jesus speaks of "the abundance of the heart." Our hearts (inner selves) can hold a lot. We hear, "I'm heart broken," "I'm heart sick" My heart is full of hate." Our mouths only express what's inside. Some folks never really explore this.

Our nation fashions itself as religious. As the world goes we still have a rather high rate of church attendance. But statistics don't really say much. Statistics say nothing about the spiritual heart condition of the Christian. Statistics don't call out how we can go off into the weeds: how we might be motivated by fear, money-love, racist bigotry, power-quest, violence (even as entertainment), ignorance, lies (smears, denials, self-protection). These can fill the collective heart, become the nation's abundant heart-treasure. Social media (including [YIKES!] Catholic sites) is the great heart-revealer today. The mouth speaks what's stored up abundantly in the heart.

Bittersweeet and a Christ Invasion

 

The Bittersweet berries (aka Nightshade) are opening. This vigorous, woody vine is labeled invasive because the plant will take over if the gardener isn't paying attention. That's the negative connotation. Still, for its bright attractiveness, florists make it available for people to bring into their homes. We might have seen it in autumn holiday church decorations. 

But the word invasion can have a positive sense as well. A medical treatment can invade malignant cells. The allied invasion at Normandy pushed back the Nazi war machine. Can I imagine Christ's teachings invading (taking over) me? Here are eleven Jesus-teachings (there are many more) which, may receive scant attention despite our claims of being familiar with them. After each verse I pose a thought or question, perhaps encouraging something of a new heart-invasion. Have the teachings of Jesus ever shocked my systems?

~ ~ ~

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him," Matthew 3:13. Jesus was baptized, and I am baptized too. This means, I have been soaked, saturated, flooded, inundated and drenched with Christ. This is who I am. Easily enough confused with, "I'm a member of my parish, a believer, an employer, a shopper, an American." All of this is passing and limited. Plato likens it to our living in a cave and mistaking the shadows on the wall for the real thing. Being baptized is more than being nice.

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17. The Greek word for "repent" means turn. So, Jesus isn't suggesting we start thumping our chests, "Oh I'm such a miserable sinner." Repent is a positive invitation—an ongoing invitation to turn, turn, turn. Like the ripening of fruit exposed to light all around. I read somewhere that fruit ripens from the inside—out.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them. Matthew 4:24. Compassion comes from two Latin words that mean, deep feeling with the other. Careful and sincere seeing and listening makes for a good beginning.

Jesus said, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:44. Loving an enemy might mean wishing him/her well. Praying for them might mean asking of God that they receive all they need for salvation. In a go-to-blue-blazes, blow you up world, that's very kind.

"But when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret..." Matthew 6:5. Jesus isn't talking about my bedroom, man cave or hideaway. He has in mind my inner room - the place of my most private, guarded thoughts and feelings. Archbishop Anthony Bloom says, "Don't pray until you feel something." 

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10. Might this mean we  have a faculty for higher thoughts—thoughts above our ordinary mentation: the slavish thoughts of making money, maintaining a reputation, keeping it all going, making everyone happy, looking correct...

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25. "Take up your cross" is much more than putting up with the aches and pains of life. There is no love without sacrifice. Sacrifice is irksome at best.  Jesus tells us to lose your life. Could that mean losing what we THINK or PRETEND is our life—in all of it's distraction, superficiality, ownership, busyness, outer presentation. Then we can begin to find our inner, higher life, which is our real life.

"And looking around on those who sat about him, Jesus said, "Here are my mother and my brethren! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother. Mark 3:35. Blood family is too small. Jesus is starting a new family. I should not imagine that only Catholics in good standing do the will of God. Notice Jesus looked around, as if he is looking around the world—looking at the great circle of humankind throughout all time.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter." Mark10: 15. Children are spontaneously learners (not to be confused with passing tests in school). Children are usually ready for anything new. Children love surprises. Do I have any experience of God that sounds or feels like this. Or has my religion become predictable and staid— a mental exercise—more about showing up on schedule. Thinking back on seminary—we were trained to be answer men, tradesmen, troubleshooters who knew the manual. There was nothing of becoming holy men who experience the thrill and wonder of God. We had five hundred acres of forest and were never told to go and walk there.

"For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." John 3:17. I remember years ago when I was teacher in New York City, walking past newsstands on Monday mornings, and frequently seeing news papers with bold headlines reporting the previous day's cathedral homily, "CARDINAL CONDEMNS."  How tiresome, a religion that's known for its condemnations. By contrast, I'm thinking of Mother Teresa who used to say, "A smile is something (a resource) we all have to share." The poorest third-world people often know and practice smile-gift far more than those in the first-world who have everything. Imagine the world being saved by smiles, bows, eye contact, greetings and handshakes (well, once covid passes).

"And he (the lawyer) answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.' And Jesus said to him, 'You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.' But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" Luke 10:25-37. We might wonder if "desiring to justify himself" means that he was hoping Jesus would give him a back door—a way to minimize the expectation. Then Jesus told what is perhaps the most well-known story of all time. But let's be sure of this—the hero of the story (the Samaritan) is a heretic, as far as the Jews of Jesus' day were concerned. So much for, "My religion only" or "Sign the fidelity oath" thinking.

Of course I need also to ask myself about the guy who's been beaten up, left naked and thrown away in the ditch at the side of the road. Who is he? She? They?  I might reflect on this prior to my November vote? Think broadly—from an informed place.