gross with fatness
As part of The Abbey's discipline of praying the monastic offices onsite and online, every Tuesday at 9th hour prayer, we read a striking phrase from Psalm 119:70. Referring to the proud, it says, in the revised Coverdale translation, their heart has become gross with fatness. Initially, I found these words amusing; then they became bemusing; after further study, now they're just challenging. They are particularly apt for me and all of us in the Western world.
The picture here is of a physical heart that is laden with fat or grease that is congealed or hardened, like tallow, rendered animal fat once used to make candles or soap. It's the perfect picture of the hard-heartedness that appears so frequently in the Bible, describing the underlying cause of sin and rebellion in us. The proud - read "us" as a culture - are fat with the things of this world, having more than any heart could wish for. But in exchange for this self-indulgence, our hearts - both spiritual and sometimes physical - get hardened, and are therefore essentially incapable of feeling either the needs of others or one's own need for God. It's been demonstrated that the richer one gets, the stingier one gets, and that, in the Scripture, "the rich" are not noted for drawing near to God.
Psalm 119:70 goes on to describe the remedy to this condition, and it's clearly not some kind of spiritual Ozempic, Wegovy, or Trulicity. There is no quick fix for this kind of heart disease. Instead, the Psalmist says, My delight is in Your Law. He describes a dedicated orientation towards God, a deep desire for Him, and a hunger to know His Presence and His Will, communicated in His Word and The Holy Spirit speaking through it. The resulting delight comes after months and years of earnestly asking, seeking, and knocking at the Door of God's Heart.
As we pray for others, many of whom are sick in body, mind, or spirit, let's look deeper than just their outer condition. Let's get to the heart of the matter and ask God to give them a yearning for Him and the Will to turn the eyes of their hearts to Him, such that the fatty things of this earth will grow strange and dim, and their hearts will be strangely tender. And, while we're at it, may we pray for ourselves that our hearts may look full in God's Wonderful Face.