Alignment of Heart
Dear Friends in Christ,
We continue with the Letter of James this week in our message series Heart Rhythms! If you have not yet set aside time to read the small letter, please do so this week.
One key aspect of our theme involves engaging our whole being (our heart and deepest core) in living out the Gospel. We are not called to be merely hearers, but doers. Our faith needs to come alive through a life of good deeds. The key word here would be engagement!
The other aspect of our theme is alignment: how well is my heart aligned with the heart of God? We are created in the image and likeness of God. We are, therefore, meant to be reflections of God Himself. Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” and he means it. We are meant to imitate, not by merely mimicking or copying what Jesus did. We are not all called to be itinerant preachers and carpenters who die on crosses for the salvation of the world. And yet, we are all called to align our hearts and the whole of our lives to the heart of God and the Gospel He set forth. That is why we need to bend the ears of our hearts to listen to the rhythm of God’s heart, and so align our hearts and lives accordingly. Saint John Henry Newman’s definition of prayer, heart speaks to heart (cor ad cor loquitur), illuminates my point with intimacy.
In a way, James highlights lack of alignment in the conflicts and passions that stir within us. James (3:16 - 4:3) sets the fruits of ambition against the fruits of wisdom, asking us to reflect on the question, “Where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?” Reflecting on our own lives and decision-making, hopefully we recognize the wrestling, the competing desires, and weighing the options. Sometimes we humans even decide on one course of action only to actually do something differently. Constancy and peace can often elude us.
James would say that this reality mostly comes from within, as a result of original sin. The fundamental harmony God blessed humanity within original creation has been knocked out of balance. Sometimes we even do what we wished that we didn’t (Romans 7:15). Humanity’s disordered affections can also be influenced or stirred up from without, by the devil (James 4:7). The evil one operates with lies, deceit, division. He seeks to amplify the pride and envy that already form part of our wounded character.
The Gospel plainly shows these stirrings (Mk 9:30-37). Jesus predicts His passion and death and the disciples argue along the way about who is the greatest. That is a disconnect! Call it a misalignment! Jesus, faithful Son of the Father, recenters them by placing a child in their midst: the first must be the last, “the last of all and the servant of all.” It is truly Jesus who becomes even the slave of all by hanging from that rugged cross to pay the price for all our sins. He is truly the last one, and yet faithful Son of the Father.
Jesus’ lesson centers on humility, the unlikely virtue through which true greatness is won. And just beyond our passage, James, in different words, offers a similar solution to the wars within us: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds” (4:8). We can quell our mixed motives and seek to be pure of heart, childlike, trusting and at peace, by first drawing near to the one who made and redeemed us.
God has come so close to us in the incarnation, probably the greatest act of humility. So, the all-powerful God has made the process of drawing us as easy as it could be for us. We have only to turn to Him and seek to be aligned with His will, our hearts beating with the rhythm of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
What is God asking me to put out of my life in order to grow in harmony with His heart?
With the blessing of courage,
Fr. Joel Wilson
