Viruses once again have dominated the news. In the past we worried about computer viruses or the flu virus. Now it’s the chronovirus, the latest pandemic to sweep the world, even touching people close to home. In the gospel, Jesus speaks of other kinds of viruses that can corrupt our hearts. He identifies anger, lust, and dishonesty as hidden viruses capable of damaging, even destroying our relationships, our very souls. With Lent just days away, we ought to listen closely to what he is saying here.
If we are honest with ourselves, all of us will have to admit that we struggle with temptations in each of these areas. So what are we to do? Are we simply doomed? When Jesus looks at our hearts, does he look away in dismay?
Thank goodness, no! Jesus comes with the medicine of his grace to cure us. We just have to give him the chance. And today’s First Reading tells us how: “If you choose,” the Book of Sirach tells us, “you can keep the commandments; they will save you.” Every day we freely choose which thoughts and actions we will commit: godly ones or selfish ones.
When a lustful thought flashes through our minds, we don’t have to accept it – we can reject it and turn to Jesus and Mary instead. When selfish anger boils up in our hearts, we don’t have to let it rule our lives and potentially damage a relationship – we can turn to Christ on the cross and learn from him how to turn the other cheek. When we are tempted to get ahead by compromising the truth, we can hold our tongues and recall Sirach’s promise: “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
We are who we are because we have free will. We make choices continually that shape our lives. When people have the right kind of relationship with God, they can read what God has put into their hearts. When they are distant from God, they write their own stuff in their hearts, inventing their own moral code.
Our choices shape us, but too often we only realize in retrospect when examining our conscience if the choice we made was good or bad.
As Sirach points out, in choosing fire or water, we make the choice between evil and good. Sirach’s point was to exonerate God from all blame for the evil in the world. The responsibility for sin and its consequences is placed directly at the feet of those who choose to sin. Like Topsy, in the classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we could say, “The devil made me do it,” but we made the choice to listen to the devil in the first place and that is the concern Jesus raises in the gospel.
You can choose to keep or ignore the commandments. The choice is yours to make but so too are the consequences of your decision since God does not give us the license to sin. Evil choices will burn us like fire figuratively and someday literally in hell while good choices will refresh us like water. Jesus clearly wants us to choose life, a fulfilling life here on earth and eternal life with him in Heaven, by choosing to reject temptation and follow him.
Paul tells us God’s wisdom, unlike any human wisdom, is timeless. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The more we love God, the more we can see his wisdom, which will enable us to see the merit behind his law, not just the commandments but also the moral teachings of the Church.
Those who choose to live according to God’s timeless wisdom will find themselves following a wisdom based not on logic, statistics or passing trends, but on love, our foretaste of heaven. Antoine St. Exupery, the author of the renowned book, The Little Prince, once said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
If we live our faith superficially, our lives will never have the meaning that they are meant to have. We end up just following the latest trends and fashions, never really having the stability or making the progress in the life that Jesus wants us to have. But if we live our faith from the inside out, keeping Christ alive in our hearts by keeping the commandments, we will be able to help set trends, not just follow them.It’s like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat.
A thermometer merely tells what the temperature is in a particular area. A thermostat, however, sets the temperature. Thermometers passively reflect what is around them; while thermostats actively affect what is around them. If our hearts are truly Catholic, truly Christian, if they are filled with the knowledge of God and with this grace, then we will be like thermostats, endeavoring to transform our world to be more like Christ. But if our faith only goes skin deep, if we are only good at going through the motions of being friends with Christ, we will just be like thermometers and the viruses that Jesus speaks of could prove to be quite deadly.