A new heart, a new spirit

THAT is what we are encouraged to pursue and to achieve, especially during this Lenten season. It only means that we should try our best, after due repentance, conversion and purification, that we acquire the very heart and spirit of God which is filled with none other than love. 

 It’s a love that Christ once described with these words: “Unless your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5,20) He went further than that when he said we should love our enemies. (cfr. Mt 5,44) 

 To have a new heart and a new spirit that reflects the very heart and spirit of God definitely involves some transformation and spiritual growth in us. It can mean that we become more compassionate with everyone, reflecting Christ’s teachings and example. It can also mean letting go of our old ways that do not align with God’s will and ways. 

 To be sure, it will always involve the acquisition of the willingness to forgive and to be kind with everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. For this, there is no other way but for us to truly seek a closer relationship with God. 

 Let’s remember that one objective of Lent is to prepare us for our new creation in Christ. Yes, we need to be made new, that is, to emerge from our state of sinfulness and weakness, so as to become “alter Christus,” another Christ, if not “ipse Christus,” Christ himself. 

 Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who became man to be the way, truth and life to us, is the very pattern and substance of our humanity. Remember that we have been made in the image and likeness of God, and adopted children of his. 

 To have a new heart and new spirit, and to be a new creation is the ideal we should strive to pursue. It requires both God’s action, which is always done, and our correspondence, which depends on how we use our freedom. 

 Thus, we hear God saying, “My son, give me your heart.” (Prov 23,26) It’s moving to hear God begging of us to give what is most precious to us, our heart. He does this because he does not impose himself on us. He respects our freedom, which is actually his gift to us, making us precisely his image and likeness. 

 And on our part, we should not be afraid to give it, knowing that what seems a loss to us by giving our heart to God would actually be a tremendous gain. Christ spoke much about this self-giving that actually enriches us rather than impoverishing us. 

 So, our attitude should sound like what is expressed in Psalm 50. “Create in me a new heart, O Lord.” If we really know who we are or how we stand before God who is everything to us, I suppose we cannot ask him in a tone other than this. We also need to beg him, to importune him, even if we know that as a good Father, he always gives. 

 This is simply the language of love into which we have to enter if we want to develop a relationship with God. What all this leads to is that we need to take care of our heart. We need to protect it and keep it always new with the newness that can only come from Christ, our savior and perfecter.

Ask, seek, knock

THIS is what Christ told his disciples with regard to how our attitude should be in our relation with God especially when we are in need of something. It highlights the importance of faith and perseverance when we ask God for help. (cfr. Mt 7,7-12) 

 “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you,” he said. And he assured us that he who asks would receive, he who seeks would find, and he who knocks would have the door opened for him. 

 Reiterating that assurance he said: “What man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? If you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?” 

 These are words that definitely showcase God’s loving nature which should encourage us to approach him with confidence and trust. Our prayers of petition should therefore be founded on God’s goodness and love. Yes, we need to persevere in prayer since no matter how things look bad, God always will love us and will take care of us. 

 We should therefore treat God as a father to whom we can confide anything at all, unafraid to talk even about some dark, bad things that may be lingering in our mind and heart. To be sure, God is not scandalized by anything. He is all there for us, to help us, to enlighten us, to encourage and inspire us. And if we need something special, definitely we should not hesitate to go to God. 

 But definitely, for us to engage God with meaningful, substantial and lasting conversation, especially when we are asking him for something special, we definitely need to prepare our prayer. And in this regard, there can be two stages of preparation—the remote and the proximate. 

 The remote preparation can be in the form of always referring to God whatever happens to us during the day, taking note of our thoughts, desires, interests, how we have done our work, how we have fulfilled our duties, etc. It is always helpful to put into writing those passing insights and observations we have in the course of the day. 

 Of course, it also helps to make a list of topics and intentions to which we refer ourselves often during the day, so that we can have some direction in our spiritual considerations during the day. It also helps to develop a set of devotions if only to train our mind and heart to be focused on the spiritual and supernatural realities of our life. 

 Everything should be offered or at least referred to God. That way, we would always be in his presence which is so important and necessary for us, because without him the only thing to happen to us is to lose hope and then to be tempted and to fall eventually. 

 The proximate preparation would consist of making many acts of faith, hope and charity, or acts of contrition and thanksgiving, if only to generate heat and passion for prayer. It’s important that our prayer be done in a lively way, or that at least, it should involve and engage our more important faculties—our mind, will, heart, our feelings and emotions. 

 It’s when we are hot at prayer that we can manage to have focus, direction and perseverance in our considerations.

“A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn”

THAT’S from Psalm 51,19 which is often used as the responsorial psalm in some Lenten Masses. It describes for us what will always attract the love and mercy of God for us. Though God will always love us no matter what, there is also the fact that God gives a most special kind of love and mercy for a heart that is truly “contrite and humbled.” 

 Perhaps we can ask how we can make our heart contrite and humbled. Some ideas can be the following: 

 - We should often reflect on our actions and shortcomings, examining our motivations; 

- We should acknowledge our weaknesses and mistakes, always praying for humility; 

- We should always ask for God’s forgiveness and guidance even if he offers it to us always; - Let’s always be grateful for all the blessings we receive from God, often meditating on his love, mercy and power; etc. 

 We should never forget that we are always hounded by our weaknesses, the many temptations around, and the many sins, ours and those of others. But we need to prepare ourselves for that fact of life. We need to cultivate a healthy spirit of penance that starts when we acknowledge these conditions about ourselves. We should be humble enough to accept this reality. 

 But the virtue of penance goes farther than that. It grows when we put up the necessary defenses against these enemies of our soul and wage a lifelong ascetical struggle. Yes, our life will be and should be a life of warfare, a war of peace and love that will also give us certain consolations in spite of the tension. 

 And for this penance to be a true virtue, it has to include an indomitable hope that can survive even in the worst of scenarios. In fact, this hope gets stronger the uglier also the warfare gets. 

 It's a hope based on God's never-sparing mercy. Some relevant words of St. Paul: “I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1,6) It would be good if these Pauline assurance forms the deep attitude we should have toward our fragile human condition. 

 Besides, we should not forget that nothing happens in our life without at least the permission and tolerance of God. And if he allows something to happen, no matter how evil it is, it is because a greater good can be derived from it. Precious lessons can also be learned from our sinfulness. 

 With God, everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) There is always a reason for everything. And so, part of having a “heart contrite and humbled” is that attitude of converting our falls and mistakes as a strong reason to immediately go to God asking for his mercy. Let’s avoid overreacting to our sins by keeping ourselves unduly worried and sad. God never tires of forgiving us. 

 But let’s be truly sorry for our sins and humbled by them. In fact, the virtue of humility is better lived and developed when we are humbled by whatever negative things can happen in our lives than when we simply humble ourselves. Being humble by being humbled would strongly attract God’s love and mercy. 

 This is not to develop a life darkened by this spirit of penance, contrition and humility. On the contrary, we would be developing a happy life where we would always feel light and more focused in doing what truly matters in our life.