Saturday 30 March

11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

Jesus said,

Blessed are the pure in heart. (Matthew 5:8)

To be “pure in heart” is to be integrated, unified, undivided.

My problem is I am frequently divided, separated, in conflict with myself. I do “pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water.” James has just pointed out that, with the same tongue I “bless the Lord and Father, and with it I cure those who are made in the likeness of God.”

Even the great apostle and New Testament letter writer Paul experienced this internal division, describing it in his letter to the Romans lamenting that

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. (Romans 7:15-19)

But Paul does not stop with this desperate vision. He goes on to add,

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:20)

There is a force at work within me that is not me; it is not my true self. Paul calls this power hamartia, translated into English as “sin”. It means literally to miss the mark. I am aiming at love, truth, goodness, beauty, and light. But somehow, there is a wobble in the trajectory of my life that causes me to go a tiny bit off course. I do not know why this wobble is there. But, when I see it, a small course correction takes place. The person I truly am comes back into play. The “fresh” water that is my true nature, again springs up and manifests in my life.