What Hides In The Heart

What hides in the heart? That is the question that Christ desires for his disciples to ask themselves. What hides in our hearts? Is there lust or other impure thoughts and desires? As Mass, we will often say the Confiteor, quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. Our thoughts, what we hold in our hearts, can be sinful. That is why Christ is focused on moving his disciples beyond action and towards intention: the intention of the heart.

What Hides In The Heart

Gospel - Matthew 5:27-32

Jesus said to his disciples:

"You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you,

everyone who looks at a woman with lust

has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin,

tear it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one of your members

than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.

And if your right hand causes you to sin,

cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one of your members

than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

"It was also said,

Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.

But I say to you,

whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful)

causes her to commit adultery,

and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

Scriptural Analysis

Jesus just completed his discussion on the fifth commandment, and now turns his attention to the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) He will employ the same ‘You have heard’, ‘But I say’ motif that was used in his discussion of the firth commandment. Just as with the fifth commandment, Jesus will intensify the effect of the sixth commandment with a focus on the interior disposition of the individual.

Jesus opens his explanation by stating that “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The Old Testament indeed warned against the danger of lustful thoughts. For example, we read in Proverbs, “Do not desire her beauty in your heart.” (Proverbs 6:25). Of course, perhaps the most famous case of lust turning into something bad is the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)

Jesus takes this warning a step further and equates lust with adultery. He does not simply want humanity to avoid the physical act of adultery. Instead, he wants us to cleanse our hearts: to eliminate the very root of this sinful action and to open our hearts to love completely. Lust is the desire to use another person for one’s own pleasure. Remaining in a state of lust poisons the heart and prevents the development of true love. Lust is already the beginning of sin. This concept was well known in the Rabbinic tradition at the time of Jesus. In the Berakhoth, gazing upon a woman’s little finger lustfully is equated with gaining upon her genitalia.

Jesus then uses a vivid example to illustrate the importance of eliminating sin. He tells the listener that if their eye causes them to sin, they should pluck it out, or if their hand causes them to sin, then cut it off. It would be better for one to lose an eye or a hand and enter heaven than to be inactive and spend eternity in hell. Therefore, we must wholly and immediately eliminate lust, anything that leads to lust, or any other sin in our lives. As painful as that sometimes it is preferable to allowing our sins to lead us to hell.

Jesus then uses this opportunity to turn to the topic of divorce. The idea of a husband giving his wife a bill of divorce comes from an Old Testament law designed to regulate an area of human failure, “He writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house.” (Deuteronomy 24:1) Jesus will later explain, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19:8) Indeed the law spelled out in Deuteronomy didn’t explicitly permit divorce but instead prevented an abuse that would often result.

Jesus calls the people back to God’s original plan for marriage: as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. A man who divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery. To survive, she will have to remarry. No bill of divorce can annul an authentic marriage bond. Additionally, the man who remarried the woman also commits adultery since the bonds of her original marriage are still valid.

Daily Application

When we think about sin, we often focus on behaviors, which are frequently referred to as sins of commission, actions that I have taken. This is a great place to start, as they are the easiest sins for us to identify and, therefore, should be the easiest sins to eliminate. However, in our spiritual growth, we need to eliminate all sin.

There is a metaphor used to describe sins: they can be likened to either a chain or a fishing line. A chain is a heavy sin, something that is clearly weighing us down. We can see this easily and thus eliminate them. Other sins are like a fishing line. They are lighter and may be harder to see. Yet just as a being tethered to a chain can hold us back, being tethered by a fishing line can also hold us back.

These fishing lines are often the things that are in our hearts. They are the feelings of distrust or malice we hold towards our brothers. They are the words we murmur under our breath out of frustration. Or as Jesus illustrated today, the lustful gaze we cast upon another human. These may seem insignificant to us, but they are the sins that can hinder our spiritual growth. Not only that, if left unattended, these are the sins that can lead us into greater sin. Kind David first gazed upon Bathsheba with lust before he committed adultery and plotted the death of her husband, Uriah.

Today, invite the Holy Spirit to show you what remains in your heart. Invite him to show you the impurities that still need to be addressed. Then go to confession, repent of those sins, and free yourselves of the fishing lines that are holding you down. What hides in the heart must see the light if you desire to spend eternity gazing upon the light of the world.