Robert Barron - Place Your Heart in God
Peace be with you. Friends, on this sixth Sunday of ordinary time, we have something similar to what we found last week. Remember last week, we had Isaiah juxtaposed with the Gospel of Luke, and each author bringing out essential features of the spiritual life. Something similar this week, but now it’s Jeremiah in tandem with Luke. And the first reading is taken from Jeremiah chapter 17, verses 5 through 8. Can I urge you? Get out your Bibles and spend a little time with this, because it’s very simple, but it’s very clarifying in the spiritual order. Here’s Jeremiah, «Thus, says the Lord, cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord».
Now, I know Jeremiah is somewhat a morose figure, and that can sound perhaps a little dark. But let’s unpack it. «Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings». It doesn’t mean here we never trust anybody and be suspicious of all people. No. Trust, trust here. Translate it this way, cursed is the one who puts his final confidence in human beings. Cursed is the one who says, «My ultimate joy, my deepest sense of purpose is going to come from human beings, from my family, my friendships, from my business partners, et cetera, from people around me».
You say, «Well, I mean, maybe there are some good people among them». Well, yeah, there are indeed. But the heart, that deepest organizing principle of one’s entire life. When you say, «What kind of person do I want to be, what kind of person am I,» you’re talking about the level of the heart. At that level, do not put your trust in human beings, because the heart belongs to God alone. Only in God is my soul at rest. It’s kind of shifting the metaphor, heart to soul. Only in God is my soul at rest. Human beings, I mean the best of us, we’re flawed, compromised. We come and we go. I mean, even the best people you know, your friends, and your family, and so on, they’re great. But they don’t correspond, listen now, to the deepest longing of your heart. So, don’t trust in them in that sense. He goes on, «Cursed is the one who seeks his strength in flesh».
Now, flesh is code here, it seems to me. Not just for this, it’s for anything in this sensible world that surrounds us. The world of ordinary experience, of nature, and of business enterprises, and of technology, and the world of our ordinary experience, that’s the world of the flesh. Bible’s not against the flesh. It’s not a platonic text. You can find that spiritual tradition that would say spirit, good; matter, bad, stay away from the flesh, in that sense. But when the Bible uses that term, Paul does the same thing. It doesn’t mean that. It means don’t put your trust, your deepest heart and soul in the things of ordinary experience. Why?
Well, because they come and they go. They’re good, but not perfectly good. Each has value, but they have disvalue as well. They have a light side, a shadow side. Nature, politics, technology, anything in this world is evanescent, fleeting, finally insubstantial. You say, «No, no, I’m going to find my joy. I’m going to find what satisfies my heart in the things of the flesh». It won’t work. Only in God is my soul at rest. My heart is ordered to the Lord. Don’t trust in the things of the passing world. You’ll necessarily be disappointed.
Now, again, listen, «Cursed is the one whose heart turns away from the Lord». Now, here’s basic biblical anthropology, basic biblical spirituality, if you want. The heart, the center, the deepest ground of my life, where do I turn it? Do I turn it to the Lord or to something other than God? St. Augustine put it with admirable laconicism. You stop loving the creator and turn to creatures. The love of the heart which belongs to God alone, well, I turn that now to something other than God. And that leads spiritually speaking to disaster, to shipwreck. And all of us sinners know what that’s like. Trusting in human beings, seeking strength in flesh or our hearts turning away from the Lord. That’s it. That’s the problem. And then here’s the comparison that I’ve been appealing more to the mind, but here it appeals to the imagination. «He», the one who does that, «is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava, waste, a salt and empty earth».
This is someone that knows about deserts, who’s talking. And imagining this poor plant, this poor tree is nowhere near water, nowhere near the sustenance it needs, and is dried up, hopeless. And I’ve always been struck by the formulation there in English, «But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth». For a lot of us sinners, we might look pretty successful in the eyes of the world. We might say, «Hey, I found the success I was looking for». But at the level of the heart, we know this is what our lives feel like: Desiccated, lifeless, our leaves dried up and blown away.
Now, listen as Jeremiah goes on. «But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,» now, there’s that term again, «puts ultimate confidence in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord». «Where will I find my hope? Well, if I just make the 5 million I want to make by the time I’m 35. And if I get that house I’ve always wanted and I get that job I’ve been longing for, that’s what’s going to keep me going. I’m going to find my hope there. Or if I just cultivate these friendships and I just achieve this political office, or whatever it is, and I’m putting my hope in those things, I will be devastated».
Hope belongs to the Lord alone. And this person now shifts the metaphor. This person «is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream. It fears not when the heat comes. Its leaves stay green. In the year of drought, it shows no distress but still bears fruit». Stay with that image, everybody. The person whose heart belongs to the Lord, through prayer, and through following the law of the Lord, and following His voice and doing the works of love, that person whose heart belongs to God is like a tree whose roots have gone deep, deep down, where they’re always finding the water and sustenance they need.
And so, when the drought comes and we all know what that means. That means in my personal life, my professional life, in relation to nature, it means my own physical health. That when the drought comes, when I’ve lost my way there, I’m not getting what I want. If I’m not trusting in the Lord, I become like that barren tree in the salt and empty earth. But if I’m grounded again through prayer, through the works of love, through following conscience, et cetera. If I am grounded and my roots have gone deep down into that water, Jesus called it the water bubbling up in you to eternal life.
Remember the woman at the well? If I found that place, then even when the drought comes… And it comes to all of us, doesn’t it? Like it or not, it’ll come to all of us, the drought. I’m okay. Leaves are still flourishing, because my heart is planted in the right place. So, with Jeremiah in mind, and again I urge you having read him, go to your Bibles and look up Luke. It’s chapter six. It’s Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, but it’s not on a mountain, it’s on the plane. So, it’s called the Sermon on the Plane. And this is his version of the Beatitudes. Matthew’s probably a little more famous, but here’s Luke’s version. But think of this now in light of the Jeremiah image.
«Raising his eyes toward his disciples, Jesus said, 'Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude and insult you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day».
I know it sounds strange. It sounds like a completely counterintuitive program. But think of it in terms of what we’ve been talking about. Who are the poor whom Jesus calls blessed? Those who have not placed their hearts in wealth. They’ve not ordered the deepest ground of their lives toward wealth. Who are those who are hungry and Jesus calls them satisfied? Those who are not placing their hearts in the satisfaction of sensual desire. There are a lot of people like that, by the way. «Oh, it’ll make me happy if I just satisfy all the longings of my body». No, no. Blessed are you who are now hungry.
How about blessed are you who are now weeping for you will laugh? What does that mean? Those who have not placed their hearts in relation to emotional highs. What makes me happy is when I’m feeling good all the time, I’m feeling elated. I’m emotionally distant from weeping. Well, no, no, don’t put your heart there, because those emotions come and go. How about blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you on a count of the Son of Man? How happy you are, how blessed you are, if your heart is not ordered to the honor of people around you. That’s something, friends, and you see it in the spiritual masters all the time, that’s particularly pathetic in us sinners if honor is your game.
So, what will make you happy is being honored, whether it’s with titles or with degrees, or it’s with position and all that. What have you done effectively? You’ve turned your life entirely over to the fickle moods of the crowd. «Oh, they like me. Oh, I got this job, and so people admire me more. Oh, I got this award so people look up to me». Yeah, maybe for the moment. Maybe all the wrong people. Maybe idiots admire you. What you’ve done is you’ve entirely placed your heart in the hands of the fickle crowd. And therefore, Jesus says, «How blessed are you»? Be happy when people hate you, because it means you’ve ordered your heart to the right place. And then look at the woes.
I’ll close with this. «Woe to you who are rich»? Yeah, if you planted your life in wealth. «Woe to you who are filled now,» who are preoccupied with physical satisfaction. «Woe to you who laugh now,» if you think your life’s all about emotional highs, et cetera. «Woe to you…», and this is one I remember telling the students at Mundelein this a lot. You give a homily and every single person just loves it. That was the best homily I’ve ever heard. «Woe to you when they all speak well of you».
See, because the danger there is, are you tickling their ears? Are you ordering your life so as to be popular with everybody? Trust me, if you speak God’s truth, you will necessarily annoy some people. So, how blessed are you if you’re not hung up on the approbation of the fickle crowd, but your life is grounded, it’s planted, it’s rooted deep so that the roots reach down to the eternal waters bubbling up in you to eternal life? You’re not a tree in a salt and empty earth, but you’re a tree that can endure even the drought. How blessed are you if your heart is ordered to the Lord? And God bless you.