Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

31st Sunday Ordinary Time (October 30, 2005)

Suggested Emphasis

"Lay - take - it to heart."

Salesian Perspective

In today's Gospel Jesus tells his audience to do everything that the scribes and Pharisees say but also warns them against following their example: "Their words are bold but their deeds are few."

Why this inconsistency? Why this disconnect? Why the incongruity between what they preached and how they acted? Why the bold words, but the few deeds?

Perhaps, as we hear in the book of the prophet Malachi, they failed to "lay it to heart." It, of course, being God's law of love: the law that challenges us to give glory to God by promoting justice and peace in our relationships with one another.

Malachi observed: "Have we not all the one Father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with each other?" To use the words of St. Francis de Sales, why do we relate to one another with "two hearts:" displaying one that is easy on ourselves; harboring a second that is hard on and harsh toward others?

This is the danger when we allow our knowledge of God to reside only in our heads and not in our hearts. To the extent that our faith remains intellectual or theoretical, it cannot address or embrace the hungers, the hopes, the fears or the dreams of others. To the extent that we do not take to heart God's love for us, our hearts will remain unmoved when confronted by the needs or the plights of others.

Herein lies the heart (no pun intended) of Jesus' criticism of the scribes and Pharisees: "They bind up heavy loads, hard to carry, to lay on others' shoulders, while they themselves will not lift a finger to budge them." Having failed to take the Law of Moses - and the Law of Jesus - to heart, they prefer to place heavy burdens on the shoulders - and the hearts - of others.

To keep faith with one another requires that we first allow God's creative, redeeming and inspiring love to penetrate our own hearts. We must take to heart our own need for ongoing conversion, reconciliation and transformation. We must take to heart the fact that God's love for us does not end with us: it must be shared with others.

"Have we not all the one Father? Has not the one God created us?" Then we must keep the faith with one another. We must promote the health, happiness and holiness of one another. We must pursue peace and justice for one another. We must promise reconciliation and collaboration with one another. In short, our actions must surpass - or, at least, keep pace with - our words.

Put another way, when we take to heart the heart of Jesus there can be no partiality: we either love our neighbor as we love ourselves…or we don't.

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS is Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.