Change of Heart

“Change of Heart.”  That will be the focus for my homily today: change of heart.

When Noah was their leader, the People of God were not following the Ten Commandments.  Their disobedience made God very angry, and God decided to punish them by sending a flood which would cover the whole earth.  And the flood killed almost all of God’s people.  Only a few survived.  Then God said, “It’s time for me to change.  Yes, it’s time for me to have a change of heart.  I will never again be so cruel to my people.  From now on I will love them unconditionally.  If they follow my commandments, I will love them.  If they don’t follow my commandments, I will still love them.  And then God said, “Every time they see a rainbow in the sky that will be a special sign for them……a sign that I love my people unconditionally.”

From that episode we learn that our loving God is not a static God.  Our God is able to make changes and have a change of heart.  That message is echoed in the words of Psalm 77.  The sacred author says, “The way of the Most High God has changed.”

Getting back to the flood story, God said to Noah and his family: “Since you are made in my image, I expect you to do what I do.  If certain people are good to you, you should love them.  And if other people are hurting you, you should love them as well.

Now, all that serves as a background for today’s first reading from the First Book of Samuel.  In those days, King Saul was very angry with his servant David.  Why?  Because of what people were saying in the streets.  When they came back from a big battle, the people said, “King Saul killed one thousand enemy soldiers, and his servant David killed ten thousand enemy soldiers.  So, David is much more valiant in battle.”

King Saul became very angry when he heard that, and he pursued David through the desert and tried to kill him.  Then David said to his soldiers, “Just watch. I will kill Saul before he gets a chance to kill me.”  David had his chance when he found King Saul sleeping in the desert.  David could have stabbed him with his spear; but he had a change of heart.  He remembered what God had said to Noah and his family about loving your enemies.  So, David walked away without hurting Saul.

And that story serves as the background for today’s Gospel.  When Jesus was preaching one day, he said, “It’ time for a change of heart.

It’s time to set aside the normal human inclination to retaliate against your enemies.  It’s time to love your enemies and do good to those who hurt you.  Now is the time to be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”  In other words, Jesus calls us to do what David did.  Jesus calls us to love those who are trying to hurt us. 

Jesus challenges us to believe that he has the power to change conflict situations into situations of reconciliation and peace.  These scripture passages serve as background for us as we prepare for the Season of Lent. 

The church calendar says: (ten) more days and Lent will begin.  Now is the time for us to decide what we will do for Lent this year.  The first thing to remember is that Lent is the time for a change of heart.  We know that God had a change of heart after the flood and David had a change of heart while standing over King Saul and Jesus called his disciples to have a change of heart during his public ministry.

Now it’s our turn to prepare ourselves to have a change of heart.  A change of heart always begins with meditating on the Word of God.  I think that each of us needs to create a plan for reading scripture during Lent.  In the entire world, nothing will move us to conversion more quickly than reading God’s Holy Word.  One way to do that is to take one of the four gospels and read it from beginning to end.  My choice for this year is the Gospel of Luke because it always reminds me of how compassionate Jesus is.

Recently I read about a family that went to the Ozarks for vacation last summer.  They stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and the mother of the family taught her children a lesson by saying: “Notice how I always put my Bible on top of my pillow.  That reminds me to read something from the Bible before I go to bed.   Then I place the Bible on top of my shoes and that reminds me to read something from the Bible first thing in the morning.”

Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  Those are the three major components of the season of Lent.  So far, I have talked about prayer.  Let’s move on to fasting.

Normally that means abstaining from certain foods or recreational activities.  But what if we were to fast from retaliation?  David stopped himself from killing his enemy and Jesus calls us to discontinue our practice of hurting our enemies.  Perhaps that is the best kind of fasting that we could do.  Jesus calls us to do well to those who hurt us.  If we find that hard to do, we could at least walk away and refrain from doing evil against them.

Prayer.  Fasting.  And almsgiving.  Almsgiving means that we share with those who are less fortunate.  The Book of Acts says in chapter 4 that we should share until no one is in need.  That is a very steep challenge.  Sharing until no one is in need.  What if everyone was to share until no one is in need?  We may never see that in our lifetime, but that does not take us off of the hook.  We are still expected to share.

During the month of March there is always a big need for food at our food shelves.  Perhaps we could find a way to increase our support for  the local food shelves.

I will close with a quick summary.

We have seen how God had a change of heart after the great flood.  We know that we are made in God’s image (as we heard in today’s Second Reading) and we know that we too could have a change of heart.  So, let’s use the season of Lent as a time for change.  With the help of prayer, fasting and almsgiving we will be able to answer the call that comes to us from Jesus…the call that leads us to have a change of heart.