Today’s gospel continues the challenge from last week to go deeper into the heart, the seat of hidden thoughts and desires. The call to conversion is a call to give just as we have received: we are loved and so should love; we are forgiven and so should forgive; we are consoled and so should console and so forth. Why is that? Because the love etc. that we have received becomes truly “me” only when I pass it on. Only then have I experienced the message of the prophet: I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezek 36:26)

Prayer

O God, open our ears to hear the word of Jesus, your Son. Open our hearts, that we may know true conversion from within. Open our hands that we may give just as we have received.

Kieran O’Mahony, OSA