How to make a cold heart warm
Many of us do not want to hear the word of God or are not open to hearing the word of God. We are closed off from even having a discussion. Could this partly be an effect of those trying to deliver the message? Many who deliver the message probably do so wrongly and turn off the listener as if by lecture we may deliver the word of God. Or we may admonish and say “you’re going to burn in Hell my friend, but I love you… now why won’t you listen to me?” I wonder why they won’t listen. “Religion” has become a bad word because what is said and what is perceived being said is a negative message, “believe, or else!” We deliver the message: rules save you from the fires of hell. What rules? Our rules. Jesus didn’t offer a set of rules but a relationship. Many who might listen have turned the incoming noise off, and tuned it out, because they don’t want to be lectured by others. I get it.
There are two parties, a teller and a hearer. It is both who have to be open. The teller must be open because otherwise she may say the wrong thing because she has received it wrongly and then passes along bad information. The listeners must listen correctly otherwise they listen to the wrong tellers.
Jesus who delivered the message to us in a perfect way was having a discussion with a woman at the well. It was the well of Jacob. She was open to hearing what Jesus had to say. Hearing the word is necessary for us to receive this grace. But in order to hear we cannot be cold to what is being said. St. John Chrysostom gives a homily on the Gospel of John chapter 4, where we meet this woman, in which he compares her to the Jewish people who did not hear His word. She is more open to what is being said than the Jewish people who Jesus came to save. She’s open to this word or as Jesus said “the water” because she listens to our Lord as He speaks and He speaks to her in a way that leads her to understanding. He does not beat her over the head with the gospel but instead draws her to a better understanding and she does receive the word of God. Then, she goes and tells others.
The woman at the well was fortunate to meet Jesus and maybe Jesus doesn’t meet us in the supermarket but we have the word of God. We have His message for us both in the Bible and in the Church.
Why read the bible?
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
“we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places … Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day … And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:12,13,17).
St. John Chrysostom says in his homily below that we must not only own a bible as a way to show our wealth as they were expensive in those days but we must also become the words we hear.
The Scriptures were not given us for this only, that we might have them in books,
but that we might engrave them on our hearts.
For this kind of possession, the keeping the commandments merely in letter, belongs to Jewish ambition; but to us the Law was not so given at all, but in the fleshy tables of our hearts. And this I say, not to prevent you from procuring Bibles, on the contrary, I exhort and earnestly pray that you do this, but I desire that from those books you convey the letters and sense into your understanding, that so it may be purified when it receives the meaning of the writing. For if the devil will not dare to approach a house where a Gospel is lying, much less will any evil spirit, or any sinful nature, ever touch or enter a soul which bears about with it such sentiments as it contains.Sanctify then your soul, sanctify your body, by having these ever in your heart, and on your tongue
. For if foul speech defiles and invites devils, it is clear that spiritual reading sanctifies and draws down the grace of the Spirit. The Scriptures are divine charms, let us then apply to ourselves and to the passions of our souls the remedies to be derived from them. For if we understand what it is that is read, we shall hear it with much readiness. I am always saying this, and will not cease to say it.
To fight the battle against the world, the flesh and the devil we have to be open to grace. To be open to grace is to foster it within us through scripture. We not only read what is written but embody those things in our hearts. Sanctifying the soul through the word of God is a means to open ourselves to the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
As Fr. John Hardon, SJ says “The Church commonly teaches, distinguishing between God’s presence and His indwelling, that the indwelling, unlike the omnipresence, is not natural but super – beyond natural. The indwelling is not universal but particular, very particular. The indwelling is not merely the presence of God in the world but it is the special way in which the Holy Trinity dwells in the souls of those who are in sanctifying grace” (The Indwelling of the Holy Trinity by Father John A. Hardon, S.J.).
Bible only?
Beyond reading and hearing the word of God in the Bible we can also foster a more intimate relationship with the Spirit through the sacraments. St. Pope John Paul II called us to a Universal Call for Holiness. In his writing Christifideles Laici, Christ’s faithful laypeople, he says
Life according to the Spirit, whose fruit is holiness (cf. Rom 6:22;Gal 5:22), stirs up every baptized person and requires each to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes,
in listening and meditating on the Word of God, in conscious and active participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church
, in personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and the suffering.
It is through this active participation in the liturgical and spiritual life, the first being baptism, that we have new life. Again, from Christifideles Laici:
It is no exaggeration to say that the entire existence of the lay faithful has as its purpose to lead a person to a knowledge of the radical newness of the Christian life that comes from Baptism, the sacrament of faith, so that this knowledge can help that person live the responsibilities which arise from that vocation received from God. In arriving at a basic description of the lay faithful we now more explicitly and directly consider among others the following three fundamental aspects:
Baptism regenerates us in the life of the Son of God; unites us to Christ and to his Body, the Church; and anoints us in the Holy Spirit, making us spiritual temples.
It is these two things, the bible and the sacraments, which flow from Jesus through the Church, that we open our hearts to His love. His desire is to dwell with us and make us His friend. The bible and the church are not here to scare us or to make us understand all the rules but instead to foster this friendship with God. They foster this friendship because they turn our cold hearts warm through the grace that is offered by them. This grace in turn leads us to greater understanding of this offer of friendship and as with any relationship it grows over time. And as Fr. Hardon says the ultimate goal is union “What is the final purpose of love? What is the goal of anyone who loves? The final goal of love is union, union between the one lover and the one loved” (The Indwelling of the Holy Trinity by Father John A. Hardon, S.J.).
Bibliography
“This one habit can keep Satan away”. Article by Philip Kosloski. February 9th, 2018. Source. <https://aleteia.org/2018/02/09/this-one-habit-can-keep-satan-away/>.
“Homily 32 on the Gospel of John”. Written by St. John Chrysostom, 5th century AD. Translated by Charles Marriott. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 14. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Source. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/240132.htm>.
“The Indwelling of the Holy Trinity”. Father John A. Hardon, S.J.. Transcripted. Fr. Hardon December, 1988 to the Handmaids of the Precious Blood. Source. <https://mariancatechist.com/the-indwelling-of-the-holy-trinity/>
“Christifideles Laici”. St. Pope John Paul II. December 30th, 1988. Source. <https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici.html>.