"If today you hear God's voice,
harden not your hearts"--Psalm 95
Having heard the
voice of God, how could one’s heart be hardened? Last week, we began
a subtle transition from focusing on justice for the poor to faith.
Jesus’ story quoted Abraham speaking to “the rich man” who was seeking a
spectacle to save the faith of his ancestors: “If they will not listen to Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from
the dead.” Faith does not grow from spectacle; however, the apostles, this
week, seem to be asking Jesus to somehow “increase their faith.” His
reply isn’t a recipe for “increasing,” but suggests they lack faith.
"If you have faith the size of a
mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in
the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
The mustard seed is
famously small---roughly the size of a grain of sand. Essentially,
Jesus is saying “If you had any faith, you would not have to ask for more.” Faith
isn’t something that comes in all sizes; it comes in one size. Also, the gift
of faith is often misunderstood as a type of passivity, of letting life wash
over oneself and hoping for the best. This passivity, however,
is heresy. It is called “quietism.” Because faith has an
element of endurance and patience, it doesn’t mean that faith is only waiting
for something to happen.
Faith is either present or absent, active or dormant. Let’s consider the
cardinal virtues to dig deeper.
The three cardinal virtues of Faith, Hope,
and Love are joined for a reason. They are joined because they
complement one another and work together. One
aspect of this trinity can be understood as true faith engendering hope and the
courage to love in the face of evil and doubt. Despair is the
relinquishing of hope, which is not the same thing as feeling depressed or
defeated or searching for hope in the chaos and disappointment that marks many
lives of people with faith. True despair is acting in the world as if there was no hope; hating rather
than loving because “What’s the point? Life is meaningless anyway; why not
hate?” Just as faith engenders love through hope, despair allows for
hatred by renouncing hope. One a virtue, the other a mortal sin. It
is this scar of sin that can harden one’s heart as the Psalmist sings.
The “hardened heart” is the heart that
lives from despair. Even the heart that has heard the Lord’s voice
can despair because very often where faith leads us, the heart fears to
go. Following a timid heart rather than Christ stiffens the heart with an unnatural
reluctance to love; the heart refuses to be vulnerable. What unlocks the potential of
faith (rather than simply “strengthening” it) is action expressed in loving despite feelings of fear, doubt, and despair. Love
is not a feeling; it is a commitment to action in response to Christ’s command
to love God and love one’s neighbor. If you wait to feel like loving
someone, your love will only serve an emotional need.
If you respond to God with “I can’t
possibly do this”, listen for the reply: “You are right. You can do nothing without
me." Open your heart and let the Spirit live and guide
you”. We are, indeed, as the gospel says “unprofitable
servants” We bring God no profit through loving others. Loving
others, especially those for whom the feeling of love is absent, is God’s gift
to us.
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