Stubborn Hearts

This teaching is based on the Scripture passage, Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn (Deu 10:16). It explains what the circumcision of the heart is, its importance for our transformation, and how to live it.

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Stubborn Hearts

Cenacle 8/28/25

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn (Deu 10:16)

Stubbornness pierces the Heart of Jesus with intense grief because it prevents our hearts from being transformed in the image and likeness of God. Stubbornness is equivalent to hardness. Stubborn, obstinate, and rebellious are synonyms; they walk hand in hand together. A stubborn person is entrenched in their own way of seeing things, perceiving themselves and others, with their own understanding, desires, goals, and expectations. A stubborn person does not change, and here is where the sorrows of God dwell, for God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we could receive the grace to change. Jesus groans at the obstinacy of these souls and suffers profoundly for them with tears and supplication, for the metamorphosis from the old man to the new man cannot happen.

Throughout the Old Testament, God laments Israel's stubbornness. Their stubbornness is often associated with their failure to heed God's voice and follow His words and commands.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward (Jeremiah 7:24).

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will… (Jeremiah 13:10)

But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will” (Jeremiah 18:12).

God’s lament reveals that the people’s stubbornness lies in their refusal to receive God's words and follow them. The Lord, too, has been speaking to us, His little mustard seed. Are we listening, pondering every word that comes from the Heart of God, and obeying what He asks of us? For if we have not, we, too, have become stubborn, entrenched in our own will, just like the Israelites. Much has been given to us by God, and therefore, perfect obedience rooted in love and overflowing gratitude must be our response.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. The word, therefore, is a conjunctive adverb. It functions to connect two clauses, indicating a logical consequence or result. This adverb is key to understanding the connection between the circumcision of the foreskin of our hearts and no longer being stubborn.

Before Moses speaks this sentence to Israel concerning the circumcision of their hearts, he tells them what God requires of them:

Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Moses is aware, through his intimacy with God, that the people cannot live according to God’s requirements if their hearts are not circumcised. The Israelites had been following Moses throughout their journey to the Promised Land, witnessing “great and terrible things” (10:21), yet they remained stubborn and rebellious. Moses says to the people:

For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death! (Deuteronomy 31:27)

Isn't this the sad condition of so many religious orders and communities? When their founders died, because the founding members were not solid in living their charism, the orders underwent great upheavals. You each are the founding members of Jesus’s Love Crucified Community and His mission; every member that lives to the fullness hearing the words that God gives us and living them with all your hearts, with all your souls and with all your strength protect and bless the future of God's mission, and every soul that remains stubborn, not heeding God's words, weaken the community. Therefore, my community, take this reflection to heart very seriously.

This stubbornness, obstinacy, and rebelliousness against the ways of God continue throughout salvation history. After all that the Lord did for His people, bringing the Israelites into the Promised Land, led by Joshua, the people rebelled against God and began to worship other gods when Joshua died. They abandoned the Lord and worshipped Baal. (Judges 2:11-19) God was not the center of their hearts; He was not their One and All. Their self-love and self-will covered and penetrated their hearts, preventing God from being their praise and their God (10:21).

This stubbornness continues till today. It continues to be the grief of our good Father. I am no different than the Israelites. This is the condition of the human heart because of original sin. This is the result of concupiscence, our tendency towards sin and the passions of the flesh. In my recent silent retreat, the Lord brought to the light of my conscience my own rebelliousness. He said to me:

My fire, the love of the Most Holy Trinity, has been purifying your sorrows contaminated with self-pity, rebelliousness, and selfishness, so that you can love, in time, in the purity of divine love. 7/26/25

I was stunned when the Lord spoke these words to me, because I did not think I was rebellious, selfish, or self-centered. Yet, as my retreat continued, the Lord revealed to me that my stubbornness was associated with my Cross. My rebelliousness in not accepting the Cross chosen by God specifically for me has hardened my heart to perceive and understand Love. My self-pity has kept my gaze turned toward myself and away from my Creator. My selfishness in not embracing my long-suffering as the greatest gift God has given me has kept me from receiving the freedom to live through Him, with Him, and in Him. It has kept me from living in joy, the gift that comes from the Holy Spirit through humility and docility by accepting my Cross, as one with Christ, and being set free to love as one with Love.

Through the words the Lord spoke to me, He is revealing to all of us that our sorrows are contaminated and need to undergo the process of purification. The second nail of crucifixion, which is the process of our hearts being circumcised, is the purification of our emotions, so that we can live our emotions integrated in Christ, lived solely to please Him. Then, my sorrows and your sorrows become the fire of divine love. Stubbornness is rooted in our self-will and self-love, which is the foreskin attached to our hearts. The foreskin consists of our own self-centered emotions, desires, expectations, plans, and attachments, our ego.

Jesus said to us on October 20^th, 2011:

Do not grow stubborn, but persevere in love by suffering all as one with My pierced Sacred Heart and the pierced Immaculate Heart.

“Do not grow stubborn.” The Lord is reminding us that, even though we have been following Him through the narrow path of the Cross as His victims of love, there is always the danger that our hearts will become stubborn.

Moses tells Israel to “cling” to God (Deuteronomy 10:20, 30:20). This one word, “cling”, is the key to not growing stubborn. The only way to cling to Christ is by being “yoked” to Him on the Cross. That is why Jesus says to persevere in love by suffering all as one with Him. The moment we stop trying daily to carry our Cross yoked to Him, and gazing at Him, our gaze turns inward to self, and immediately the devil comes to tempt us through the passions of the flesh. Thus, our hearts become stubborn as we choose self-glory, self-pity, and self-love.

Remaining daily clinging to Christ by suffering all with Him is hard work. It requires great love, discipline, and continuous denying ourselves. It requires allowing God to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts, and living in a constant state of repentance; continuously saying to God and each other, “I am sorry, please forgive me.” An obstinate, stubborn heart justifies itself and seldom acknowledges that they are wrong, and therefore, seldom apologizes. The stubborn heart rarely receives the gift of self-knowledge. It is so easy for us to read Jesus’ litany of strong words to the Pharisees and scribes in the Gospel of Mathew 23 and think that they do not apply to us. This is a perfect example of stubbornness. It is only when we see our own hypocrisy that we then cease to be hypocritical and obstinate.

The circumcision of our hearts is performed by God, not us, for it is impossible for us to circumcise ourselves. Moses tells the people:

The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

It is impossible to live the first commandment without allowing God to circumcise our hearts. St. Paul teaches the Colossians about the importance of a spiritual circumcision:

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ. (Col 2:11)

Jesus, too, spoke to us about the circumcision of our hearts as the process of receiving the nails of crucifixion. He said on December 19^th, 2021:

The expansion of the tent of your heart is a painful process because it requires a slow death of self. You must be willing to die to everything that is not of Me. The Simple Path to Union with God is the path of dying to self… The first nail was a stripping, the circumcision of your heart. A stripping of your attachments, expectations, desires, plans, goals…

What we must do is allow God to accomplish this work in our hearts. This is the work of the three nails of crucifixion in our Simple Path to Union with God. On January 6, 2014, he taught us concerning the first nail of the crucifixion. He said:

You no longer do what you want to do nor go where you want to go, but now, you only go where I take you. You choose to live each day according to what is most difficult, not what is easiest.

What is most difficult for me as I choose to live clinging to my Beloved, yoked to Him in His Eucharistic life? Keeping the eyes of my heart continuously on Him and listening to His groans as I live the daily challenges of my life. It takes silence and great discipline to maintain this interior focus of the heart. This is why the Lord said to me:

The purification of your desires is the first stage of purification in My Sacred Heart. You begin to move only according to My desires and not yours. This requires greater silence and stillness of soul in Me. 1/16/14

I must raise my heart to God daily and pray, “My God, circumcise my heart. Remove every bit of self-love and self-will, disguised in so many ways, from clinging to my heart. Make my heart pure gold, your priestly chalice filled with your precious Blood, your life. Then I can love you as one with Mary with all my heart and with all my soul. Then I can live my daily life giving you all glory and honor. Then, and only then, can I become the consoler of my God.”