Homily: Friday - 7th Week in OT 2017 - Healing hardened hearts

Israel was often chastised by God’s prophets in the Old Testament for being hard-hearted.

Hardness of heart is the stubborn refusal to yield to God, to accept his truth and follow his commandments.  The Greek word for hardness of heart in Mark’s Gospel here is sklerokardia, literally sclerosis of the heart.

The obstinate rejection of the ways of God leads to this spiritual disease, in which the human person closes itself off from the love, truth, goodness, and beauty of God.

Remember, early on in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus enters a synagogue on the Sabbath where there was a man with a withered hand.  Jesus was deeply grieved at the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees. They wrongly believed that it was not right for Jesus to heal the man.  For the Pharisees, their human interpretation of the law was more important than the truth of who Jesus was and what he came to do.

Here in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus exposes the terrible hard-heartedness which had afflicted the Pharisees’ understanding of marriage. The Pharisees had lost touch with God’s original plan, blinded to the truth, goodness, and beauty of holy matrimony. The Pharisees, like many of our contemporaries believed that marriage was a human convention that could be altered or redefined or dissolved.  But Jesus exposes their error and teaches that, marriage is not a mere human institution, but a bond made by God himself.

The study of our faith and the practice of our faith exposes us to the healing graces of Christ, which heals our hard-heartedness not only in doctrinal matters, but the hard-heartedness which keeps us from spreading the love and mercy of God.

One of the great promises of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which has always struck me is that Jesus promise St. Margaret Mary that those who love the Sacred Heart practice devotion to the Sacred Heart will have the ability to touch the most hardened of hearts.  God can melt hardened-hearts, he can restore those blinded to the truth, he can bring unbelievers to belief, he can bring comfort to the most despairing, the effects of sin on the human mind and heart can be healed.

Through the love of Christ and the truth taught by Christ and his holy Bride, the Church, may all hardened hearts be healed and filled with his grace and mercy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all married couples may reflect the beauty of God’s love and share it with others, and that families would always draw strength for virtuous living from the teachings of our Lord as transmitted by the Church, we pray to the Lord.

That families would become schools of love as all learn to treat each person, especially the most vulnerable, with compassion, gentleness and respect, we pray to the Lord.

That those who are experiencing brokenness in family life through divorce, separation or death would find strength in the example of Christ who overcame all the brokenness of our world through his passion, we pray to the Lord.

For all those who have rejected the Gospel, for Christians who have fallen away from the Church, for all those who have fallen into mortal sin, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts to deeper fidelity to the Gospel, we pray to the Lord.

For the needs of the sick and suffering, for those in nursing homes, hospital, or hospice care, for victims of natural disaster, victims of war, violence, and Christian persecution, for those imprisoned and those struggling with addiction and mental illness, for those who grieve the lost of a loved one, and for those who will die today.

Homily: Thursday - 1st Week of OT 2017 - "Harden not your hearts"

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

There are many places within the Bible which describe a terrible spiritual disease which, if left untreated, can lead to the death of the soul. The disease is called “hardened heart”, or, in the ancient Greek translation, “sclerocardia.”

Of course, “hardening of the heart” is not an affliction of the physical heart muscle, but is something that happens at the level of the human soul.  What are the symptoms of the disease? Setting one’s will in opposition to God, being closed to the things of God, attachment to sin, failing to bear the fruits of the spirit—fruits like joy, gentleness, and peace.

We’re familiar with the famous example of Pharaoh, hardening his heart, obstinately refusing to listen to God’s word through Moses. Of course, the New Testament has its share of examples of this disease. The Pharisees, Chief Priests and Scribes harden their hearts toward Jesus.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 95, which was also our responsporial Psalm today, which speaks of the Israelites hardening their hearts in the desert.  The Israelites had succumbed to the effects of “sclerocardia” on their pilgrimage through the desert to the promised land—they became filled with complaint against God, they considered returning to Egypt, reasoning that at least in Egypt that had succulent food, wine, oil, and garlic. They preferred the things of the world to the freedom to which God was leading them.

The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95, because the Jewish-Christians of the early Church were in danger of hardening their hearts. As they experienced the persecutions, they were in danger of turning their hearts from God. This is a danger, too, for all of us who share in the cross of Christ. As we are called to turn away from the delights of the flesh, or when the trial of faith grows difficult, we can start to question: “Is it really worth it?”

Hebrews says, “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.”

How do we guard against this spiritual heart disease? Learning from the stories of scripture and the lives of the saints, meditating on the cross and on the Passion of Christ, making sure that each day we take time to enter into God’s rest, to peacefully meditate on his presence with us, and our place within his plan.

Proverbs says, “With all vigilance guard your heart, for in it are the sources of life.” May we guard our hearts from hardness, from cynicism, from selfishness, from grumbling, from obstinance toward God’s commandments, from fear of doing God’s work, that we may experience his peace and his joy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.




That the hearts of all Christians may be always open to the Holy Will of God.

That the minds of our government leaders may be opened to the truth of the Gospels.

For those who have hardened their hearts to God and the teachings of Christ, for those who have become callused or bitter towards the Church, for their conversion, and the conversion of all hearts.

That the hearts of all young people may be fertile ground for the life of the Spirit.