Hardness of the Heart blocks, God's will/Grace in one’s life

 GOSPEL THOUGHTS

19^th Week – Friday

Gospel – Matthew 19: 3-12

St Maximilian Kolbe

 Hardness of the Heart blocks, God's will/Grace in one’s life

1) Hard hearted people do not feel the pain of Others

It is believed that heart is the centre of feelings and emotions

When someone says that a particular person do not have heart means, there is no feelings or emotions in his life or in his heart 

Usually hard hearted people are cruel and they enjoy inflicting pain on others 

2) The Pharisees who approached Jesus were hard hearted people

Since they were hard hearted people they failed to understand the pain of their own married partner

Leaving the married partner was a ordinary thing for them, and it appears that it was their right to do so, without feeling anything for the partner 

Such an attitude makes the person to think only about the self and not the pain of the other 

3) Hard hearted persons think that they are always right

This is one of the indications to prove that they do not listen to the others 

Whatever they do they think that it is perfectly right 

Everyone else has to fall in line with their way of life. They treat others as their slaves

4) Hard hearted persons do not give place for God

In fact we believe that God speaks to us in our heart

Heart is a place of Love and  God dwells where there is love. In other words we can say that heart is the place of God. 

Hard hardheartedness of the heart refers to the absence of Love and absence of God in ones life

When there is no God or when there is no place for God in ones life, the working of God becomes waste or he/she does not realize the working of God. 

Such a person becomes alien to God's grace and mercy. Pharisees were belonging to this category

5) Hard heartedness is dangerous to life

The moment the heart becomes hard it can't function properly. 

Heart is a soft portion of the body and it can function only when it is soft or flexible. 

Hardness of the heart can cause death of a person. The same logic can be applied to our spiritual life. 

Hardness of the Heart is equal to the death of the spiritual life of the person. So we need to be careful. 

6) Am I a hard hearted person?

One of the important questions of our life

When we fail to see the pain of another person we become hard hearted persons

These are some signs to show that we have become or becoming hard hearted persons

• I don't feel anything when I commit some serious mistake
• I am hardly disturbed when someone suffers terribly
• I don't bother to share the pain of another person 
• At times I feel happy to see others are suffering
• I feel inflicting pain on others is a normal thing 

When someone else suffers because of my mistake I am not at all disturbed

Do I reflect such a kind of behavior in my Life?  

7) St Maximillian Kolbe

He was born in Poland on 8 January 1894. He because priest in 1918.

He was martyred in August 1941 with an injection of carbolic acid. 

Pope Paul VI beatified him on 17 October 1971 and canonised on 10 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II.

"I am a Catholic Priest from Poland. I am old. I want to take his place because he has a wife and Children"* *Maximilian Kolbe

God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones.

Fr Maxim D’Souza

Jeppu Seminary

Mangalore