The Lord gives us our whole heart, and calls us to seek Him with our whole heart. Both our Lord and the Apostle James warn us about dividing this gift. In the Gospel we hear of the Pharisees who were outwardly looking for something that would strengthen faith (a sign from heaven), but with a contradictory goal: “. . . to test him” (Mark 8:11). They do not put their whole heart into the search for faith: asking for a sign and believing that Jesus can do it. Nor do they even oppose the Lord with a sincere heart: trying to test Him, but in a manner that they can rationalize as religious. Such duplicity gets them nowhere, and what is worse, this division between heart and action provokes deep indignation in the heart of Christ.
The Apostle James, tells the early Christians to ask for wisdom from God, and to ask with their whole heart! He warns, “But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6–8). Why would anyone think that God would not want to give wisdom to one who asks? It seems unthinkable, and yet the testing of someone as manifestly good as our Lord would seem likewise unthinkable. . . We must lift up our hearts to the Lord, our whole hearts! Let us seek the Lord with our whole heart, let us ask the Lord to give the greatest of gifts, trusting that our good God wants to give and wants us to receive His Eternal Wisdom. By the intercession of St. James, may our choices and our petitions be filled with the faith that keeps our hearts whole, that we may delight to welcome the God who seeks us and loves us with His whole Heart.