Inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence

1Ts 2,1-8; Ps 138; Mt 23,23-26
27 AUGUST

False prophets are by nature immoral. A heart full of God will always say the words of God. A heart full of Satan will say words of Satan. The Word either has its origin in God, if the heart is in God, or has its source in the Gehenna of fire, if the heart is in the fire of hell. From the word we know where everyone keeps his heart. This truth is wisely announced by the Apostle James. The word reveals the heart.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers. Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh (Jms 3,1-12).

Jesus also to the Pharisees who accused him of operating the liberation from unclean spirits by friendship or in the name of Beelzebùl, the prince of the demons, says the same truth.

“Either declare the tree good and its fruit is good, or declare the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12,33-37).

When the heart is full of greed and intemperance, it is a sign that God does not live in it. It is right to highlight a truth often ignored by the multitude of believers. Not only the body, but also the heart must be nourished. The body feeds on matter. The heart is nourished with holiness if God is inside it. It feeds on sin, if the Lord does not live in it. Being the heart of the scribes and Pharisees full of greed and intemperance, it must be nourished with ever greater greed and intemperance. Today their heart wants to feed on one evil, one sin: the killing of the Son of the Most High. Until it has not been nourished with this sin it will have no peace. After, it will need other even greater sins to satisfy his thirst for sin and evil.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. (But) these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

Every man is warned. God is nourished with God. Christ Jesus with Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit. The Gospel with the Gospel. The grace with grace. The sanctity with holiness. The science of the Most High with science of the Most High. Charity with charity. The truth with truth. But if the heart is full of greed and intemperance it will necessarily be nourished with greed and intemperance. Those of yesterday are not enough anymore. It needs more strong, great, intense and copious of them, capable of satisfying his thirst for evil and sin.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, purify us from evil, put God in our hearts.