Day 16, Thursday, 4 March The devious heart

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 16, Thursday, 4 March 

The devious heart

The very first of the psalms sets the tone for today: ‘Happy the person whose delight is the Lord …they are like a tree planted by flowing waters. Not so are the wicked, … they are like winnowed chaff’ (Psalm 1). And Jeremiah (17:5-10) repeats this psalm almost word for word. That it is the first psalm of all perhaps suggests it is the dominant theme of all the psalms. Certainly, it is the leading theme of the Christian life: trust in God.

Many people today trust in God even though they would not put it in those terms. They live an unselfish life even if they do not enter a church. The media often reports stories of women and men whose motivation is concern for others. Just yesterday there was a report of a blind 9-year-old boy in a shattered school building in war-torn Yemen who stands up and teaches the class when the teacher does not turn up.

Jesus tells a horrific tale of a man who goes the other way (Luke 16:19-31). He enjoys himself everyday and takes no notice of the poor man at his door. For him the poor man does not exist. They both die and finally the rich man’s eyes are opened and, in his pain and regret, begs Abraham to warn his brothers. But Abraham tells him ‘a great gulf has been fixed’ between ‘your side and ours’. It is too late.

Whatever our thoughts on hell, one thing is sure. There is a finality about death. Up to that time we can cross the gulf between affluence and misery, oppression and freedom, hatred and love, rich and poor. But after death the gulf is ‘fixed’. We will then live by the choices we have made. It will be too late to change. And the greatest choice of all, the one we learn with our mother’s milk, is to trust.