Today's gospel lesson is about the change of heart. The chief priests and the elders are unwilling to change their hearts as Jesus directs. As he teaches with authority that they themselves do not have, the hearts of his listeners are deeply moved. This doesn’t mean that all those who hear him change their minds by default. Jesus' parable of the two sons illustrates this point. The first son initially refuses to listen to his father but eventually changes his mind and goes to work in the vineyard. The chief priests and the elders, on the other hand, represent the second son.
What, then, does Jesus want his followers to change? The change he invites everyone into is not a superficial change, such as having a positive attitude about life. It is a radical change that impacts the whole person, turning one’s life upside down. Jesus' call to the change of the heart is to turn inward and look deeper inside ourselves that God dwells in us. It is a call to change the way we see God, ourselves, and the world. How we see God in us is not through our physical eyes but through the eye of the heart. We close our eyes to see God. The term “contemplate” originates from the Latin contemplatus. It has meanings such as to “gaze attentively” or to “mark out a space for observation.” In contemplation, we gaze attentively to the busy work of the mind and thus mark out a space for God’s presence. We don’t in a literal sense see God. There’s nothing abstract or theoretical about this journey into the presence of God. We first begin with Jesus’ good news that the kingdom of God is within us. Until we actually experience God’s presence in the depth of our being, it’s a hypothesis that we have to test it out. This process of going deeper into ourselves to gaze at God is through stillness. John Main whose contemplation method our Wednesday group follows makes this stillness into two: the stillness of the body and the stillness of the mind. The stillness of the body begins with having one’s back straight whereas the stillness of the mind is to repeat simple words as an anchor to ground one back to the place of stillness. As we keep ourselves silent, we see that the mind is not silent. We experience how the mind wanders around, creating a series of thoughts and feelings (or simply distractions) that tempt us to break that noisy silence and open our eyes. As a way to gather the mind together around one object (or peaceful distraction), we can use our breath or simple word(s). This is to concentrate our mind. It’s like we attentively look at waves to settle down. We don’t want to rush without patience. Otherwise, we’ll be drawn into the water as Peter once did. (Matthew 14:22-34) But it’s okay. That’s when our breath or anchor word(s) will help us out like the reaching hand of Jesus to Peter. The key is to not give up but relax and rest as though you’re floating on the water, if not walking on it. When we realize our wandering thoughts and feelings come and go, we get to focus more on our breath or anchor words. That’s usually when we feel peaceful and calm. That’s also when we care less about our thoughts and feelings which form a sense of who we are. This self-forgetfulness is linked to the discovery of God’s presence in us. The mind is filled with a sense of self in that God’s presence is not merely hidden but forgotten. The peace we experience in meditation through letting go of thoughts, feelings, and a sense of “me, mine” or the I-making process in our Christian tradition is the peace of Christ that “...passes all understanding” and “guards our hearts and our minds.” (Philippians 4:7) In this peace, there’s a death of self, which is symbolized by baptism. “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:4-5) This invitation of Jesus to the change of the heart is life-fulling and freedom-giving. Yet, why do the religious authorities such as the chief priests and the elders in the lesson resist it wholeheartedly? A short answer would be their envy. A long answer would be that they’re so full of themselves that they choose not to allow God’s presence to be active in their lives. Jesus’ call to the inner presence of God is both “from heaven” and “of human origin” (Matthew 21:25) since we of human origin encounter the presence of God from heaven within ourselves. The change of the heart happens when heaven and earth are integrated into oneself. Friends in Christ, I would like us to go and work together in the vineyard today. You might say no but as long as you “just do it” that’s all that matters. It’s never too late, and in the presence of God who is, but neither was nor will be, always present, every day is “today.” |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|