“‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’.” (Mark 7:7).
I recently listened to a homily spoken by a beautiful priest who spoke about his friend from the seminary who had experienced the power of conversion after many years of living his life as a priest.
And the story went like this…
There was a young man who decided that he wished to give his life to God as a priest. He had felt a calling through his younger years, and as he approached his university studies that calling became stronger and more powerful. At first, he tried to ignore that calling, but it only grew more insistent as time wore on. Eventually, that calling became so insistent, that the young man approached his local parish priest and began discerning his vocation. Eventually, after many years of study – as is the way of priesthood – the young man became a priest.
Over the years while he was a priest, the man fulfilled all of his priestly duties. He offered the sacraments, administered the parish. He said all his prayers and fulfilled all of his obligations. And he admitted that at the time, he was not a bad priest at all, but neither was he a very good priest. You see, he was like the Pharisees… He followed all the rules really well, he just did that without very much love inside his heart.
And then one day, while he was attending a retreat, he read through the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and right there – in an instant – he experienced the Grace of a profound conversion and was able to reflect on his life and begin anew, with a new and profound love and recognition of God!
“The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, ‘Why do Your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?’ And He said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’.” (Mark 7:1-7).
And I have been reflecting on the story of the Priest and on the admonishment of Christ to the Pharisees, and I have been considering these two things in light of my own miserable life. For it seems far too often that I do all the duties that my Lord might command, and offer little else. It seems to me, that far too often, my Beloved could call me hypocrite and admonish me for my lack of love. You see, I worry that like that priest, prior to his conversion, I too am not a terrible child of God, I am just not a very good one.
And it occurs to me today, that the most important thing that I could ever seek to do in this world is to be a loving Child of God… It is simply the most important thing…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.