“The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse– who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
“What was he thinking?”: it’s the sort of thing we say when we are confronted by unaccountable and inexplicable human behavior. True story: a number of years ago, a member of Congress was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes in exchange for political favors. Federal agents came and searched his home, and discovered almost a hundred thousand dollars hidden – in the freezer! I can’t remember how he accounted for all this cold hard cash frozen solid: why not hide it under the bed! What was he thinking?
The point of the story is not simply how bad people can be, or even how bad other people can be (this is usually the direction our minds take us). No: the point is, rather, that people do things that just don’t make sense, that they know don’t make sense, that go against their best instincts and which they know will lead to disaster. People do things that are just plain wrong. It happens all the time, to all sorts of people, including ourselves. We are our own worst enemies.
St. Paul talks about this phenomenon in the Letter to the Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom. 7:15, 19). For Paul, this is on account of slavery to sin: it is sin that is acting and not Paul. “But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Rom. 7:17), as he says. But in another sense, it’s almost as if Paul is standing beside himself and observing his own actions, which he does not understand; as if there were two people named Paul and not one. You see, we truly are our own worst enemies. What was that other Paul thinking?
St. Augustine writes about this phenomenon when he says that he has become a question or a riddle to himself (Conf. 10.33). We are a puzzle, no doubt about it. Psalm 64 says, “The human mind and heart are a mystery” (Ps. 64:7), and truer words were never spoken. And for the Psalmist, they are a mystery because of the human propensity for conspiracy and slander. Where do these things come from? Well, for St. Paul and St. Augustine, this is a mystery hidden in the human heart: a truth they had from the Lord. As Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel, when he talks about the things that separate us from God, “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mk. 7:23).
The prophet Jeremiah in our first reading today takes the same line, only stronger in expression. “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse– who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). The human heart turns away from God, Jeremiah says; people put their trust in themselves and not in the One who is trustworthy. Living on their own, they become separated from God. “They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land” (Jer. 17:6), the prophecy runs. Instead of trusting in God, and putting down roots like the tree planted by the stream, they remain a shriveled shrub that’s ready to dry up and be blown away.
But let’s get back to the heart. Jeremiah says earlier in the chapter, “The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, and on the horns of their altars” (Jer. 17:1). Not only are our hearts devious, likely to ignore what we know is for our own good, but they are also downright hard; rock hard, so that the record of our sins is inscribed with iron and a diamond point. If that’s the case, what will it take to chisel them out? “I am worn down by the blows of your hand” (Ps. 39:11), is says in Psalm 39; and again, Psalm 38, “I am utterly numb and crushed; I wail, because of the groaning of my heart” (Ps. 38:8). We are a mystery to ourselves, because our hearts are divided and broken in two.
Our Gospel reading gives the remedy, pointing us toward the One who can heal us. “Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people… They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them” (Lk. 6:17-19).
If our hearts are broken, and we are divided against ourselves; if we are standing on the sidelines and watching ourselves like our own worst enemies; if all that is so, there is a remedy. God’s grace is more powerful than what ails us, and the Physician stands ready to intervene. That grace is available to us through Christ’s Body and Blood, the signs of Jesus’ victory over sin and death. We may not understand our own actions, but there is One who perfectly comprehends them, and loves us in spite of ourselves. Today, we draw near to the throne of grace, and find God’s mercy and help in time of need.