A stubborn God

Feb 28, 2025

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Readings: Sirach 27:4-7;
1 Corinthians 15:54-58;
Gospel: Luke 6:39-45

“Oof.” That was my first and honest reaction while reading the Gospel for this Sunday. The words of Jesus are painful to hear because it confronts my own hypocrisy. “Can one blind man guide another?” (Lk 6:39). I am aware of the many blind spots in my vision; I can be biased, partial, and judgemental, despite my best efforts not to be. Then, there are all those other defects that are unknown to me but are obvious to everyone else! This awareness can make the call to discipleship heavy, even something to be avoided. The “oof” turns into an “ouch” at the following words: “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?” (Lk 6:41).

The self-awareness of hypocrisy and incoherency can lead someone to extremes. One extreme is to give up completely on themselves and others by being indifferent and relativistic. Another extreme is to be insidiously demanding of oneself and others, imposing unbending rules that can disguise itself as religious zeal and moralism. Both extremes are a response to something fundamental in man – the heart. Jesus points this out, “A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart,” (Lk 6:45).

By ‘heart’, I do not mean it in the sense of pop psychology or a simplistic Christian idealism that seeks to flatten and dismiss reality. Nor am I referring to an understanding given by individualistic self-help pseudo-psychological analysis found in religious moralism. I am referring to the most ‘profound core, in every man and woman,’ that ‘dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even physical dimensions,’ (cf. Dilexit Nos 21). The heart is where I encounter my most true self, where no masks are worn. The heart is ‘the naked truth about ourselves’ (cf. Dilexit Nos 5). In other words, it is my heart that said “oof” and “ouch” earlier. It is this same heart that types these words with fear and excitement as it seeks to articulate something greater than itself.

It is my heart that asks, “How is it that I am saved by grace and yet continue to fail, despite my best efforts?” Here, Jesus speaks to my heart, to that naked truth about myself. He knows the masks my heart wears; He sees through the clown makeup that I put on and yet wants my heart just the same. Jesus is stubborn for my heart. He is stubborn for your heart. The novelty of the Christian faith is that a perfect God wants, yes, wants, to deal with our human hearts. He chooses to deal with our hearts with a human heart Himself. He chooses to dwell in our human hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor 1:22, Rom 5:5).

The heart is fragile; inconsistent and hypocritical; weak and sinful. Yet from it, goodness, mercy, love and beauty also flow. This is its reality. Through the Incarnation, Jesus chooses to deal with this reality in a holistic way. As a disciple, a follower of this same Jesus, I am called to live and deal with this reality, in myself and others, in the same manner. In the Second Reading, we see St Paul dealing with this human reality. This struggle between the earthly man and the heavenly man. He deals with it in Romans 7 as well; the drama between knowing what is good and yet failing to choose it; knowing love and yet choosing sin.

In both passages, he claims victory in Jesus (cf. 1 Cor 15:57, Rom 7:25). This victory is ours too. Our daily lives, in the midst of our own inconsistencies, is a call to exercise that victory in freedom, until Christ Jesus is fully formed in us – Jesus says: “The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher,” (cf. Lk 6:40). This is our hope. In this life, we are sifted, until all our rubbish is left behind, (cf. Ecc 27:4). Discipleship forms us into Christ. We live with the tension of being both a sinner and a saint. Christ knows this and continues to speak to our hearts from His own heart, revealing to us what it means to be His, until we are completely His; until we claim His heart as our own, until the “oof” and “ouch” becomes a song of unending worship to the Father.

What shall we do? “Never give in… never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain,” (cf. 1 Cor 15:58). St Paul calls us to be stubborn with our discipleship. To be stubborn with a stubborn God. Thank God for the victory in Christ Jesus who was, and still is stubborn for us; stubborn to the point of death. Are we willing to be stubborn? To be stubborn until Christ is formed in us? To be stubborn with others as Christ forms them into Himself?