This Sunday in Matthew’s Gospel we listen to the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount.  We hear Jesus’ teaching on revenge, anger, adultery, and honesty.  We hear him appeal to the heart.  The passage is reminiscent of Mark’s Gospel where Jesus tell his disciples that it is not what goes into a person that makes them unclean but what comes from their heart: lying, fornication, envy, murder, slander, malice, pride, folly.  All of these things come from within, from the human heart and make a person unclean.

Matthew seems to be discussing the same point.  Look into what is in your heart.  Look to the way that you are generous, or not, in word and thought.  There will you find the beginning of (dis)respect for women and men.  Let your ‘yes be yes’ and your ‘no be no’.  Don’t play with words to cover for the opposite intentions of your heart.

So Jesus’ followers are called to an examination of the heart.  And those who call themselves followers of Jesus are called to turn to their hearts and reflect on what they find there.  The heart is the place where we find empathy or lack of empathy.  Our hearts can be weighed down with our own worries or open to receiving others.  Our hearts can be places where we harbour resentments and envy.  They can also be places where we can nurture forgiveness.  They can be places where envy is replaced with rejoicing and delighting in other people.

And of course our hearts are the places where the Lord can move within us and change us.  All we need to do is ask!  I like the way that we pray for a change of heart in the Second Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation:

“In the midst of conflict and division, we know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace. Your Spirit changes our hearts: enemies begin to speak to one another, those who were estranged join hands in friendship, and nations seek the way of peace together. Your Spirit is at work when understanding puts an end to strife, when hatred is quenched by mercy, and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.”  (Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II)

This prayer acknowledges the Spirit at work in our hearts as a community of believers.  It is this change of heart that Jesus calls his disciples in the Gospel today.

And we need to keep praying that prayer today: for the many areas of our lives, our Church and our world, where we need the Spirit to move and change human hearts again.

Jesus appeals to us to look into our hearts.  But he doesn’t leave us alone.  He promises to send the Spirit into our hearts to do for us what we cannot do alone.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of you love. Send forth you Spirit and we shall be created.  And you shall renew the face of the earth.

By Fr Brendan Reed