March 22, 2006

• ~Heart Exam~

  
  

  The Capital One credit card commercials ask, “What’s in your wallet?”

  
  

  They of course are hoping you will examine your wallet – your finances – and determine that you have some things in your wallet that you need to get rid of, and perhaps there is something which should be in your wallet which would benefit you, but which isn’t there.

  
  

   

  
  

  In Great Lent, you are not asked by Christ to think about what is in your wallet, but you are asked by Christ to examine what is in your heart.     St. Paul says, “I do not want what is yours but you”  (2 Cor 12:14).    Unlike banks and credit companies,  Christ loves you, not what you have.   Christ is most interested in what is in your heart, because the heart is also the very location in us of the Kingdom of God.

  
  

   

  
  

  Great Lent gives us opportunity to prepare for Holy Confession.   This is our chance to look into our hearts and to manifest “What’s in my heart?”   We need to know what is in our hearts and to show it to God -  either in confession to overcome it, or to make an offering to God of the fruit of our heart which is our spiritual garden.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here is what our Lord Jesus Christ warns might be in our hearts:

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come:   lust, theft, murder,

  adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23)     Notice that Christ does not blame the devil for these sins – their source is the human heart, not Satan.   When we come to Confession, we come because we have looked into our own hearts and we have seen “What’s in my heart?”     We come not to blame Satan or our neighbors or our parents.   We come to acknowledge what is in our hearts that needs to be gotten rid of.   This is the nature of repentance.   This is what makes it possible for God to reside in our hearts, for our hearts to be the kingdom of heaven within us, to be the spiritual garden from which we gather a harvest of virtues to offer to God.

  
  

  ~ Fr. Ted Bobosh

  • 6:23 pm
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