\u201cI will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them\nupon their minds.\u201d <\/a>This is the New Covenant\nof the Lord as Paul presented it to the Hebrews. And you know what? When people are committed to their Faith, when\nthey seek the Lord and desire to do his will as an integral part of their\nlives, then the New Covenant applies to them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\nI suppose that\nthe large crowd that came to hear Jesus was full of folks who came for some\nvery different reasons. On the surface, they\ncame to hear this special preacher because of his reputation. But really, only some came because they were\nseeking after the meaning of life. Others\ncame because it was the thing to do; or they felt justified by seeking\nspiritual diversity; or they wanted to belong; or they were dragged there by\ntheir spouse or family; or any of a number of other reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what did they\nhear? They heard about seeds sewn along\na path. Can\u2019t you just imagine the\nreaction? What\u2019s he talking about? What a bunch of baloney? I came here for this? What does this have to do with me? Is that all there is? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you know what,\nmany folks come to Mass sometimes on Sundays for some of the same reasons. Some come because they are committed to their\nfaith with their hearts. But there are\nmany other reasons that other folks come- some to justify themselves or to\nbecome belong to a community; others as sort of a guilt offering for their\npre-occupation with the world; or because of peer pressure from their spouse or\nfamily; or to serve as an example for their children. God bless them for whatever reason they come because\nthey may be converted in heart by the living word of God at any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this morning,\nJesus makes it clear he is looking for people who are truly committed to him\nwith their hearts. They may not be\nperfect- nobody is perfect. And the\npeople who think they are perfect, well they are probably the ones with the\nmost to learn. But they come with all\nhumility seeking something better- the real meaning of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Jesus spoke\nthe truth in parables so that only those who came to hear him with their hearts\nwould perceive the truth. Jesus\ndeliberately structured his message to challenge his audience. He was challenging them to be open with their\nhearts and minds to a new and exciting message about the ultimate purpose of\nlife. Anyone who was committed to the\nearth and fleshly existence would perceive that message as a lot of baloney. Only those who were honestly seeking the\ntruth would be open to it. If their\nminds and hearts were open to his message; they would get it because the Spirit\nof the Lord would work on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same thing is\ntrue today each and every time folks come to Mass. When you hunger and thirst for the Word of\nGod with your heart, and you yearn to receive the Lord in the Blessed\nSacrament, then coming to Mass on Sunday, and in fact any time you come to Mass;\nwell then, the Mass will be something special to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when you come\nfor any of the other reasons, there will always be something wrong- the music wasn\u2019t quite right; the homily was\ntoo long; it\u2019s the same old thing every time, and on and on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Paul quotes\nthe Old Testament; \u201cI will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them\nupon their minds.\u201d He is talking to all\nof the people of God who come before him honestly seeking the truth. To those, the Spirit will move them to understand\nwhat is hidden from the multitude. The salvation\npromised in the New Covenant belongs to such as these. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time St. Maria Soledad Torres Heb 10: 11-18; Mark 4:1-20 Deacon Larry Brockman \u201cI will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds.\u201d This is the New Covenant of the Lord as Paul presented it to the Hebrews. And you know what? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[573],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}