Daily Retreat 03/16/06

2006 Mar 16 Thu: Lenten Weekday

Jer 17: 5-10/ Ps 1: 1-2. 3. 4 and 6/ Lk 16: 19-31

From today’s readings: "I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.... For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes..... If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead."

Who knows the human heart?

Despite some helpful and legitimate insights from philosophy, psychology, and allied fields, so much of human nature remains enigmatic to our modern world - as is pointed out in the book of Jeremiah, "More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?"

Quite simply, man by himself cannot fathom the mystery of man! But the Creator of Man can and does, of course, understand and know everything about human nature, so the most profound insights about the human mind and human heart necessarily come only from Revelation given by the One Who alone can "probe the mind and test the heart."

So whenever we find ourselves misguided or on the wrong path, it’s time to renounce the ways we’ve trusted in worldly wisdom instead of divine Wisdom. Lent is our privileged time to do just this as we chew on the basic choice of life: "Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD....[But] blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD!"