MARCH 6, 2009: EZECHIEL 18:21- 28; MATTHEW 5:20-26

ALL THINGS ARE DOUBLE, THE ONE OPPOSITE THE OTHER.  (Sirach 42:24 LXX) When the grandson of Jesus Ben Sirach translated this verse of his ancestor’s Hebrew text into Greek, he could not have realized how well suited and replete with significance his words were to remain. The whole passage in which they are embedded adds to their import:

By the words of the Lord His works come into being . . . all these things live and remain for all uses, adapted to the whole . . . . ALL THINGS ARE DOUBLE, THE ONE OPPOSITE THE OTHER, and nothing He has made is defective. The one strengthens the good qualities of the other.

This statement of a broad principle has assumed a fresh, more penetrating application in modern times that extends its scope to the inner structure of all material reality. Long before, a similar insight prompted the psalmist to declare that “power belongs to God, and also unto you, Lord, belongs mercy.“ (Ps.63: 12, 13) Not only are created things double but God himself in his excellence manifests a manner that is both merciful and just so that His way too is double. Modern science has revealed a plethora of detail concerning the structure and operations of the physical universe that reveals all composite matter is indeed double. Consider for instance the fact that all the living things in our world, our bodies included, are the result of the coming together of atoms to form molecules in an endless variety of configurations. These structures are made possible by an electrical bonding resulting from the fact that there is a positive charge on certain elements that interact with the negative charge on others. Complex matter is held together by the presence of polar opposites in its composition.

Moreover, modern insights into psychology have shown that the bipolarity of the human psyche is such that we function in an analogous manner to this doubled feature of matter. The loving dependence created by our need readily turns into resistance, even into hatred, when thwarted. Much of our inner life contains the seeds of ambiguity, for we too, are doubled within, having a need for loving approval even while possessing the urge for freedom and independence.

NATURE IN ITS INNER STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS REFLECTS THE ATTRIBUTES OF ITS CREATOR. This fundamental principle was grasped and appreciated by the early monks who applied it to the life of prayer, and in particular to contemplative prayer. There are traces of God’s wisdom, power, beauty, knowledge, and providence in all his creatures both in their individuality and taken as a whole in their interactions that constitute history. Purity of heart is an essential acquisition for all who would see God. Its attainment requires not only the mastery and integration of the passions, but also the purification of the thoughts and desires of the heart that reduces our doubled nature to simplicity. Indeed, in the tradition, the word ‘simplicity’ (haplotes, in Greek) was a synonym for ‘purity of heart’ The training and practice that produces such simplicity of spirit is the work of such contemplation of nature and history as attains to perception of God’s presence and activity in the world, and the whole of the cosmos.

Today’s two readings reveal that God himself as he communicates himself to us, displays what we experience as positive and a negative tendencies. As Ezechiel puts it when the sinner truly turns to him, God declares, “I will not remember all the iniquity he has done; in his justice that he does he will live.” He not only forgives past sins, he blots them out entirely so he does not so much as remember them. On the other hand, in the Gospel today we are given a glimpse of God’s exacting justice. On this occasion our Lord, who so often is the instrument of the Father’s forgiveness, severely warns his audience that God is exacting, sets a high standard of behavior as a condition for living with him in his kingdom. “Unless your justice surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Our Lord makes it abundantly clear that God’s mercy is but one pole of his nature; he is also demanding, and imposes a heavy responsibility on us: we must exert our self, take appropriate initiatives to create good relations with those who are for some reason at odds with us, or he will not acknowledge us as his own.

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What the liturgy is teaching us in these early days of Lent is that, even more important than fasting and other practices of self-denial is the exercise of charity and the purifying of the inner dispositions of our heart. Jesus reminds us in this Gospel that, like the chemical bonds and the coordinating pathways they create to provide the basis of the unity evident in our physical bodies, union with God requires not only receiving his mercy through repentance, but also satisfying his justice through the initiatives of charity. Repentance attracts and binds God’s loving mercy to our person, and creates a bonding stronger than that in our bodies. May the grace of this Eucharist enable us effectively to put into practice the works of penance undertaken with that true love which is the gift of this sacrament. The Lord grant that as we observe Lent this year we strive fruitfully for that unity of spirit which is the mark of the children of the heavenly kingdom.&