Why We Clean Our Room
I don’t know if you’ve ever visited a seminary. The closest thing I can compare it to is, “It’s like boarding school.” Each seminarian is assigned a room that we’re encouraged to keep as clean as possible. This shouldn’t come as a surprise for you to learn that I, for the most part, always kept my room tidy…except towards the end of each semester. Like clockwork, when final exams came around, the floor of my room became the canvas for me to spread the piles of my class notes and study guides in preparation for the grueling exam marathon of finals week.
And I remember one semester, one of the priests who works at the seminary, one day passed by my room when the door was left wide open, and upon looking into my living quarters, commented, “You know, Tom, the state of your room is a reflection of the state of your soul.” I shrugged off the zinger as a catchy way of requesting me to clean my room, but later I found this very request printed in Sacred Scripture, “Put your house in order, for you are about to die…”1 You see, our heart is like a house that we are asked to put in order.
And the Law, the Ten Commandments, is intended to help us achieve this cleanliness of heart. We shouldn’t view the Ten Commandments as merely a minimum limit that we should not go beyond. Rather, they are guideposts, guiding us along a moral and spiritual journey towards purity of heart. For example, the Sixth Commandment, Thou shall not commit adultery, is not just a prohibition against the physical act itself. Otherwise, why would Jesus clarify, “Whoever looks at a person lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”2 No, the Sixth Commandment is an invitation to begin to look at others in a pure way, leading us to purity of the heart.
At the end of the year, before us seminarians left for our Christmas break, we had to have our rooms inspected, to ensure the upkeep of the seminary. And the same priest who made the witty retort about the condition of my room was notorious for using the “white glove inspection” technique. He would run his finger along the some obscure location, like along the top of the door frame, to see if we had dusted the most remote crevices. Pretty harsh, I know! But it taught us the difference between having a cosmetically clean room and an immaculate habitation.
That’s what the Pharisees, who judged the apostles of Jesus for technically breaking the rules of the Sabbath, that’s what they did.3 The Pharisees only had a superficial understanding of the law and how to apply it. So Jesus revealed to them that He came to fulfill the Law, and the fulfillment of the law is Love.4 We know whether or not we are applying the law correctly if it brings us to love our neighbor more as opposed to finding judgment or condemnation of them. Being able to interpret the Law correctly is the difference between being able to answer objective multiple-choice questions and being able to write an intelligible and meaningful essay on your final exam.
The Ten Commandments is intended to purify even the most secret chambers of our hearts in order to prepare a fitting abode for Christ to reside. It is the difference between having a cosmetically clean room and an immaculate habitation into which we invite our Lord to dwell.
1 Isaiah 38:1-6.
2 Matthew 5:28.
3 Matthew 12:1–8.
4 Romans 13:10.
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