The Centrality of Heart!

Friday, June 14, 2024

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-16; Mt 5:27-32

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives a new teaching on the heart. 

It comes from his instructions on adultery and marriage. 

Morality Centered Around Heart: In his teaching on adultery, Jesus shows how the insistence on the body as the center of morality has led to an unhealthy dualism between body and heart. In such teaching, while bodily purity symbolizes holiness, sins against such bodily purity signify defilement. Such a conception has completely overlooked the dimension of the heart as the epicenter of morality. Demonstrating the heart as the birthplace of sin like adultery, Jesus holds that since it is born of a person’s heart, the place of rectification is the heart as well. In other words, for Jesus, the heart of transformation lies in the heart. Jesus’ teaching on losing even the members of one’s body to avoid sin reveals his radical commitment to be good and just in the eyes of God. 

Marriage as Union of Hearts: We also find Jesus upholding the sanctity of marriage in the way God intended it as the union of hearts and not as the union of bodies. In Jesus’ view, it is the union of hearts that renders the marital commitment permanent (indissoluble) and not the union of bodies. 

Jesus’ teaching on adultery and marriage does not disregard the Old Testament understanding of these. Rather, the newness of Jesus’ teaching throws light on how God originally intended them.

Thus, Jesus abolishes the significance given to the body and reclaims the role of the heart as central to human morality.  

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar