SAINT BERNARD, ABBOT AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH (MEMORIAL)

I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you. 

The prophet Ezekiel was facing a great challenge.   The Israelite people had abandoned the ways of God.   They had profaned the name of the Lord through their idolatry, and they were also committing a host of injustices against one another.   Given how far they had strayed from him, this chosen people clearly must have either doubted or ignored God’s power to save them and protect them from their enemies.

Yet in the midst of this bleak scenario, Ezekiel proclaims a message of hope.   God will transform the hearts and spirits of his people.   This will be his initiative, not theirs. And through it, God’s holiness will shine forth; it will “prove the holiness of my great name” (Ezekiel 36:23).

When he poured out the Holy Spirit on us at our baptism, God gave us a new heart and a new spirit as well.   But he is always seeking to renew and recreate us, and just as in Ezekiel’s time, it is his initiative that brings about this change.

How does he do this?   One way is by allowing us to see ourselves as we really are—with all our sins, failures, and weaknesses.   As he reveals to us where we have gone wrong, he also softens our hearts.  He helps us see how deeply we need to rely on his grace and mercy in our lives.

Admittedly, this can be a painful process.   It’s not a superficial repair job; think of it like a heart transplant of sorts.   Like any serious surgery, it cuts deep, causing us to confront our sin.   But this is precisely what makes it so effective, especially as we cooperate with God’s grace and take steps to repent and change.

We might be tempted to react to God’s “heart surgery” with discouragement or despair.   But instead, it should give us great hope and encouragement.   God loves us so much that he is always seeking to change our hearts so that he can form us into the people he has called us to be.

“Lord, place within me a new heart and a new spirit.   Take from me any hardness of heart that limits your action in my life.”

Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19
Matthew 22:1-14