On the Heart

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, I greet you, dear brothers

and sisters, on this 11th Sunday after Pentecost.

Here we are at the end of August. For many weeks,

as you know and as I've been emphasizing, we've

had lessons from the Gospel. Miracles of Christ.

That's what we've been hearing really all summer

long. About faithfulness. About trustworthiness

of Jesus. About our own trust in him. About his

divine power to feed, to heal. To give us sight.

To know him. To know Jesus as the son of God.

So we call him Lord. All these lessons have been

given to us. I'm not going to review all that

today, but today we have this parable. The first

parable we've had since, I think, since Lent.

In fact, somehow or other, the weekly news cycle

was all about forgiveness. Loan forgiveness,

that is. But we're talking about a different

kind of forgiveness today. Anyway, a cancellation

of a debt. I want to talk to you about the condition

of the heart in regard to this parable. The condition

of the heart, which is the center of a human

being, where we find ourselves, where we meet

God, where when a person is baptized and chrismated,

the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the heart.

It's not a place of feelings. although it's affected

by feelings. It's a place of spiritual understanding.

It's the eye of the soul. I want to talk a little

bit about the heart, very briefly. Many church

teachings, particularly about morality, run against

the grain of modern culture. We know that. This

teaching... that the Lord gives us in this parable

is tacitly kind of admired, but not kept very

well, not even by Christians. And so how can

we stand before the Lord? So the Lord is telling

us what will happen if we can't forgive, not

that he's going to throw us into the hell pit.

No, but we open ourselves up to the anger, the

dysfunction. The sin and the memory that just

doesn't go away. Church members, this is a parable

for us. All of chapter 18 is about life in the

church. How to treat one another. The Lord speaks

of fellow servants and a master. People think

this parable and its teaching The teaching is

not attainable. But it is. When we forgive our

fellow servants, again, Jesus is speaking about

the church, it's forgiveness, as he says, from

the heart. When our Lord says forgive from the

heart, it is because the heart is the place where

divine grace is placed by God. And it flows in

from God and it flows out to others. Love from

God, love for God equals love for others. Just

as we can't say we love God if we don't love

our brother. The heart is to be the throne of

God within us. Know ye not that your body is

the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you.

which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.

This temple of the body holds that which is beyond

understanding, beyond comprehension, the presence

and the love of God. But before that can happen,

however... we experience the heart as a battleground

of spiritual struggle. Those of you that were

here last night heard a little bit about St.

Moses the Black and the battle that he waged

spiritually within him. It's a battleground.

Close examination of the heart reveals what the

prophet Jeremiah observed. Chapter 17. The heart

is not the place that we consult. When we have

to make a decision. The heart is not the place

where if it feels right, I'll do it. This is

what Jeremiah says. The heart is deceitful above

all things and desperately corrupt. Who can understand

it? And Jesus himself says, from within, out

of the heart of a person. Come evil thoughts,

sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting,

wickedness, deceit. Lord, stop. Sensuality, envy,

slander, pride, foolishness. Lord, really. All

these evil things come from within and they defile

a person. So our task is to have the heart cleansed.

That is why we're here. Today. To open ourselves

up to the cleansing of the heart so we can do

what seems totally impossible. We can restore

paradise as I spoke last week. You heard about

the fall. Restore paradise and to be truly the

image of God. And we can only know that by following

Christ because otherwise how can we know what

God's image is? The struggle is more than worth

it because within the heart Out of the heart

will go coveting, wickedness, deceit. Out of

the heart will go desperate corruption, as Jeremiah

says. And into the heart will be planted peace,

love, joy, mercy, long -suffering, gentleness,

faithfulness, self -control. The struggle is

more than worth it. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote

this, Every blessing that comes from God is then

available to you. You can possess it with a free

spirit. Be your own judge. Cast the saving vote

for yourself. Do you ask God to forgive your

debts? Forgive the debts of others, and God will

cast his favorable ballot. And St. Maximus says,

forgiveness does not mean, well, no, I say, sorry,

St. Maximus says something else. Forgiveness

does not mean trusting those who hurt you. It

does not mean allowing ourselves to ever again

become the victims of someone's abuse or betrayal.

But what it does say, what does do, what Maximus,

the confessor, does say, if you are remembering

that evil against someone, then pray for that

person. And through your prayer, what will happen?

A miracle. You will remove the pain of the remembrance

of the evil that person has done. You will stop

the advance of the passions. You yourself are

the Lord of the judgment concerning your neighbor.

Maybe many of you have heard of that monk in

the monastery. He told his abbot, Father, I can't

say the Lord's Prayer. I can't say, I can't forgive

this person. And the abbot said, okay, here's

what you're going to do. You're going to say

the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will

be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us

this day our daily bread. And end right there.

Can you really say that? No. Because... then

you open yourself up to condemnation. How marvelous.

How marvelous is this parable. So when the Lord

says, love your enemies, we know it's possible

because it's God's grace that is doing it. When

he says, do good to those who hate you, we know

it's possible for it's God doing it. good through

us when he says pray for those who persecute

you we know from the lives of the saints that

it is possible he commanded these things so we

might be set free from hatred from sadness from

anger and grudges and God will grant us the greatest

possession of all perfect love says St. Maximus,

which is impossible to have except by the one

who loves all equally in imitation of God. How

marvelous. Forgiveness is not just about better

health and life and satisfaction. It's not just

an aid for reducing stress. It is that and fighting

depression. It is about becoming by grace what

God is by nature and restoring true paradise

on the earth. One person at a time. One congregation

at a time. And that's leaven. That's salt. That's

fulfillment of the Lord's precious commandments.

Let's try to keep this parable. Let's think about

it all week and examine in ourselves the grudges

and the lack of forgiveness we have against somebody.

You may not think there is one. But I find as

we look more deeply into our souls and into our

memory, there's always someone that we hold something

against. Forgive them through prayer and you'll

be set free.