Hidden in your Hearts

Children’s songs are passed down from generation to generation, sometimes with slightly different words, but with essentially the same tune and ideas. One such song is “Goin’ on a Lion Hunt.” I learned it as a Brownie Scout and we sang it through the years around campfires or in troop gatherings. It was always fun to act out the words as in the song we came up to a tree and had to “go around it” or a creek or a field and had to “go through it.” Of course, when we finally found the lion, we were far from prepared for the sight and had to repeat all of the motions in reverse as fast as we could until we arrived safely at home!

Quest stories are a feature of most cultures. A person is presented with a challenge and must go forth, away from all that is familiar, in search of the answer to the question, or a treatment for an illness or enchantment, or their true calling in life. Sometimes the quest includes other persons of about the same age. Sometimes, the hero must go alone, seeking advice from those met along the way, including spirits and animal friends. Trials abound, traps for the unwary, surprise sources of inspiration, and eventually, the goal of attaining the wisdom or prize of the quest.

Many of my favorite stories have been those of quests, especially those that include young people and some historical or mythological characters as well. It’s fun to learn about other cultures or historical events through the eyes of observers who are witnesses or participants in them.

Sometimes we think a quest must also be necessary to figure out God’s will for us. What are we to do? What does God want of us? Where will we find the answers? Surely something important enough to please a divine being must be big and elusive!

Yet shortly before his death, Moses spoke to the Israelites, descendants of those who had been enslaved in Egypt and freed through Passover. “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law…” It sounds like these commandments must be something difficult to find. But no, the command “is not too mysterious and remote for you.” It’s not up in the sky or across the river. It’s not like going Lion hunting – through many dangers and challenges.

“It is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” (Deut 30:10-14)

Already in our hearts? How can that be? What are the commands that can be in our hearts?

The Law states very clearly what is expected. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

OK, but what does that mean in terms of actions? A scholar of the law asked Jesus that exact question one day. “Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus didn’t send him on a quest to find the answer to the question, though in a novel he might have done so. Instead, he told the man a story.

“A man fell victim to robbers…” The poor man was stripped of his clothing, beaten, and left half dead by the side of the road. We’ve heard the story many times. A priest saw him and moved to walk on the other side of the road. A Levite, a person who could assist with sacrifices in the Temple, also crossed the road to avoid contact with the injured man. Only a man from a stigmatized group, a Samaritan, stopped to help the injured man.

The Samaritan was “moved by compassion” and stopped to offer first aid and care. He took the man to an inn, carrying him on his own animal. He had to continue on his journey the next day, but he paid the innkeeper to continue to care for the wounded man, promising to pay any additional cost of the care when he returned.

Jesus asked the scholar, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” When the scholar answered, “The one who treated him with mercy,” Jesus confirmed his observation. “Go and do likewise,” he said. (Lk 10:25-37)

Compassion, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness. All are signs of obedience to the commands of the Law. They are shared among all people.

Jesus, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” through whom all was created, who holds all things together, tells the young man, “Go and do likewise.”

Each of us is included in that command. “Go and do likewise.”

We are born into a family, a culture, a nation, and we learn the ways of those who raise us. Some of those ways may not exactly be loving or welcoming of differences among peoples. Some may be hostile to ways of being that are not acceptable to “our people.” Some are fearful of outside influences and seek to remain “pure” in beliefs and actions. Some are afraid of change.

In a way, we each have a quest on which we embark as we grow up. We learn the ways and expectations of our families and peers with our mothers’ milk, and we take them as absolute truth when we are very small. As we grow, we learn of other peoples and other ways. We seek to find the right way to live as human beings.

In our quest, Moses told the people, we are not to think it necessary to go up to the sky to find the Lord’s command, nor are we to think we must cross the sea to find it. It is already near to us, “already in your mouths and in your hearts.”

Jesus too tells us that the place to look is within our hearts – to look for mercy and kindness and compassion that reaches out to those in need, those who are not from our own group, those who may be from other countries or ways of living. We each have gifts from the Father that are to be used for others. Part of our quest is to identify those gifts. One way to do it is by serving others. Opportunities open up, walls fall down as we approach, a smile opens the door to a heart.

Jesus is “the head of the body, the church … in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things…” (Col 1:15-20)

Following his instructions, may we too go out this week and serve our fellow travelers on the way with gentle, compassionate, acceptance and understanding. We’ll meet some amazing people and have some wonderful adventures along the way.

Readings for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C