Use your head, heart, hands and feet

September 3, 2006 -- 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. Which of the three domains is strongest (weakest) in your life? 2. What is the relationship between truth and love? 3. Are we here in the United States a wise and intelligent nation?

God's word for us today involves what educators call the cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains. That is, cognition deals with the mind and our search for wisdom; affection deals with the heart and our longing to love and be loved; and, behavior deals with the choices we make and how those choices shape our character and our destiny.

Moses gave the people a pretty strong homily (more like, a lengthy sermon). As a prophet he taught the people to know and live God's statutes and decrees. And he drives this point home by saying that if we are obedient to God's design we will give concrete evidence that we are wise and intelligent.

From the perspective of Moses, wisdom and intelligence are much more than a high IQ. Rather, it is the embracing of God's truth, a truth that presents authentic options for happiness. We are here in the land of meaning. And God's decrees, which might be summarized by reading Micah 6:8 (that we act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God), provide a meaning system that makes great sense.

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) appeared to the culture of his time to be a fool, one lacking in wisdom and understanding. Yet, we know from this life that Francis committed himself to the doing of God's will and in that obedience gave evidence of his true wisdom.

In Mark's Gospel for today we hear a great deal about the affective domain, the area of our life symbolized by the heart. Jesus is clear and direct. No matter how smart we might be (or think we are), what ultimately matters is the condition of our heart, for from it comes good and evil. That is why words falling from our lips without being connected to the heart fail in authenticity. Hypocrite is the word Jesus uses to describe those who worship and pray and yet do not have their heart in it.

Amos Niven Wilder comments: "The human heart would suffocate if it were restricted to logic." Indeed, the truth that logic offers is of great significance but the heart has its own "wisdom," its own "intelligence." The word compassion comes close to describing this grace or the word empathy. It is suffocating to be around people of genius who lack affectivity.

Perhaps the Jewish rabbi Abraham Heschel was correct when he commented that our religious buildings are empty because we no longer know how to move the heart. "The problem is not how to fill the buildings but how to inspire the heart." And probably nothing inspires the heart so much as caring for others.

That brings us to the third domain: behavior. If the head deals with cognitive dimension of our lives and hearts with the affective, it is our hands and feet that provide evidence of the behavioral domain. And what does the word of God have to say here? Caring for widows and orphans witnesses to a religion that is undefiled and pure.

The truth that the mind comprehends and the love that the heart experiences seek expression in reaching out to those in need, the afflicted ones. This means that we must be doers of the word, translating God's decrees into concrete action. This means that our hearing must be followed by obedience, the doing of God's will.

An integral spiritual life gives due regard to the mind, heart, and hands; a holistic discipleship is one in which truth, love, and action are seen in relationship.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)