March 16/Fourth Saturday of Lent
Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous,
you who test the hearts and minds, O righteous God. ~ Ps 7.8-9
Through the years, various children I know (and may in fact be related to) have deployed the stratagem known in our family as “Bambi eyes,” a wide-eyed look intended to project an image of righteous innocence that conceals a duplicitous heart. I can almost imagine today’s psalmist raising his Bambi eyes to God, seeking God’s approval of his integrity and righteousness. But is he — are we — truly as blameless and pure as we purport to be? We may be able to fool others, but we will never fool God, who “tests the hearts and minds” with a penetrating eye. It is a prospect that might well make us uneasy. For the verb translated “test” – a verb that in biblical usage nearly always has God as its subject – suggests an intense scrutiny that reveals the essential qualities of the thing scrutinized. In concrete anatomical terms (and biblical Hebrew is nothing if not concrete) God is conducting a thorough spiritual testing of what in Hebrew reads as the “hearts and kidneys” – our innermost selves. God does not merely give us a cursory performance review; no, he fixes his gaze intently upon us, piercing through our exoskeletons and burrowing into the soft, sensitive tissue within, the parts of ourselves that leave us ashamed, that we would rather not open up to scrutiny. He searches out and finds those places in our hearts where resentment, indifference, bitterness, anger and so many other faults are hidden away. But mercifully, he does not discard us in our imperfection. Rather, he forgives us and sets us back on the right path. As twentieth-century priest and author Romano Guardini observed, “There is nothing brighter than the eyes of God. Nor is there anything more comforting. They are inexorable but they are the source of hope.”
O God, Searcher of the human heart, I ask you today for the clarity of vision to seek rightly and to love well, in union with your holy will. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm
To hear Marion Williams sing “Must I Be to Judgment Brought,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUJGXPQ7zxE
