WHY DO YOU HARBOUR EVIL THOUGHTS?
Am 7,10-17; Ps 18; Mt 9,1-8
5 JULY
Sometimes, reading the Gospel, one gets the impression that the scribes never read the Old Scriptures. But even in our day, hearing many ministers of the Word speak, many professors and teachers of it, it seems that they have never read the Gospel. If a non-Christian, a pagan, takes up the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and reads it, he would immediately notice the abysmal difference between what it says both in the letter and in the spirit, from what ministers, professors and doctors in charge of its teaching, say. Where does the cause of such an abysmal distance between the revealed Word and the announced Word reside? Between the truth descended from heaven and the falsehood that comes from the mouths of men? The reasons for the transformation of truth into falsity are all to be found in the heart of man. When the heart is bad or of stone or evil, since the mouth always draws the word from it, what is inside comes out.
Jesus says it clearly: “Why do you think evil things in your heart?” The apostle James reveals to us that the mouth is connected, well connected with the Gehenna of fire. When the heart is bad, the tongue draws the words from hell and pours them to the earth. Pure heart, pure word. Evil, bad heart, words of hell.
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 (Jm 3,1-12).
Who wants to have pure eyes to see everything according to the heart of God, must have a pure heart, without sin. Whoever wishes to always say a word of pure truth, the same that is in the thoughts of the Lord, must dwell in the Word, lending it perfect obedience. Impure eyes and unclean word reveal that we are not in God. If we are not in him, we cannot even see and speak from his light.
He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbour evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings.
History always reveals the thoughts of the heart. If Jesus can heal a man, it is a sign that He comes from God. If He comes from God, every Word of his comes from God. It is God’s the word that forgives sin and is from God the word that gives perfect healing. The visible miracle makes the invisible miracle true. Impure heart, always unclean mind!
Most Pure Virgin, Angels and Saints, purify our hearts of evilness and wickedness.