MANIFESTING THE MOTIVES 

OF OUR HEART

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Manifest the  Motives of  Our  Heart.”

As I listened to the readings we have for today - this 8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [Year A] - a comment from today’s second reading from Saint Paul grabbed me: “manifest the motives of our hearts….”

“… manifest the motives of our hearts….”

Here’s that comment in full context:

“Therefore do not make any judgment

before the appointed time,
until the Lord comes,
for he will bring to light

what is hidden in darkness
and will manifest the motives of our hearts,
and then everyone will receive praise from God.” [1 Corinthians 4:5]

MOTIVES

All of us are detectives.

All of us - when we are scratching our head - and trying to figure out the otherness of other people ask, “Motive?”

We cry over and over again, “Why? Why? Why?”

We want to know what’s the why of the what that has happened?

We like mysteries - if they are in a book or on  TV - trying to get to the why and then the who of a crime.

We know our who’s - the who’s who in our lives.

It’s the  why’s about them that we spend so much energy on.

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from Isaiah 49: 14-15, we want to know at times why God has forgotten us.

At least that’s what we feel and think. It hits us when there is cancer, a death, an accident, a disaster. It happens and we pray. We scream at God. It seems God has forgotten us.

So Isaiah voices God back to us when we feel that way - when disaster happens, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

So when someone dies, don’t blame God. Look to self. Look to realities. One question would be: “What would Spaceship Earth or Ark Earth look like if nobody ever died?”

In today’s gospel - continuing the Sermon on the Mount - we have lots of food for thought - when it comes to motives.

For example: Why are you worried - anxious - about food and drink and clothing?

For example: Why are you trying to serve two masters? Don’t you know that will pull you apart?  Don’t you know the Russian proverb: Chase two wolves and you’ll catch neither?

LIST OF MOTIVES

I’ve often wondered if there is a good list of motives around.

I’ve heard that the 3 key problems in marriage are money, sex and in-laws.

I’ve heard that the 2 key motives are fear vs. love?

I typed into Google the word, “Motives.”

One article said that psychologists divide motives into 3 categories: biological, social, and personal motives. Then they break down those 3 motives to many subdivisions.

Someone came up with 12 motives for murder:

·       To keep a secret

·       Revenge

·       Frustration/hate

·       Money/Greed

·       Sex/Jealousy

·       Property Dispute

·       Personal Vendetta

·       Political

·       Class Conflict

·       Narcotics

·       Other Felonies

·       Urge to Protect

A Stephen Reiss came up from a study of 6,000 people, 16 basic desires:

1.    Acceptance - the need to be appreciated

2.    Curiosity, the need to gain knowledge

3.    Eating, the need for food

4.    Family, the need to take care of one’s offspring

5.    Honor, the need to be faithful to the customary values of an individual’s ethnic group, family or clan

6.    Idealism, the need for social justice

7.    Independence, the need to be distinct and self-reliant

8.    Order, the need for prepared, established, and conventional environments

9.    Physical activity, the need for work out of the body

10.                    Power, the need for control of will

11.                    Romance, the need for mating or sex

12.                    Saving, the need to accumulate something

13.                    Social contact, the need for relationship with others

14.                    Social status, the need for social significance

15.                    Tranquility, the need to be secure and protected

16.                    Vengeance, the need to strike back against another person

So there are various lists.

I would suggest doing some homework and try to come up with key motives that make sense to you.

Then watch yourself.

Know yourself.

And it you don’t like a motive that drives you, get rid of that car and drive a new car. Work on working on a better life style.

CONCLUSION

I think that's a decent start on the topic of motivations.

Let me close with this short piece from Daniel Ladinsky’s book, Love Poems from God. The following is some thoughts from St. John of the Cross put up in poetic language from Daniel Ladinsky.

  

"DIG HERE," THE ANGEL SAID

She caught me off guard when my soul said to me, "Have we met?"

So surprised I was to hear her speak like that I chuckled.

She began to sing a tale: "There was once a hardworking man who used to worry so much because he could not feed and clothe his children and wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village where the man lived and one day while he was praying, an angel appeared.

The angel said, 'Follow me.' And he did out into an ancient forest. `Now dig here,' the angel said. And the man felt strength in his limbs he had not known since youth and with just his bare hands he dug deep and found a lost treasure, and his relationship with the world changed."

Finding our soul's beauty does that—gives us tremendous freedom from worry.

“Dig here, the angel said - in your soul, in your soul.”