Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm comforts us.“If today you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts.” Yet the readings for Sunday seem to say the opposite. They speak of thunder and fear and of devils being driven out. If these don’t harden our hearts, what would?
Take the First Reading. Moses quotes God’s words from one of God’s conversations with him:
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth.
Moses will act as intermediary between God and the people so that their terror may be lessened. (Exodus 19:16-20:26).
But look at their reaction to God's gift of the ten commandments. Moses recalls it in today’s First Reading. “Don't make us listen to that voice again, or see that great fire again because we might die from it.” The people did not even hear the word of God because fear had frozen their hearts. Do you or I ever find God too large and threatening for our small selves? Do we ever want to ignore his voice, especially when it is speaking commandments that go against what we want? Don’t we put a wall up to protect our hearts?
Maybe we construct that wall today by taking the name of the Lord our God in vain. Or by ignoring religion. Or by dishonoring our parents, or desiring to commit adultery, or by stealing or lying or by simple lust. So many movies and television shows depict the joys of these sins. They are hard to resist! We are lured.
But God’s voice lures us also. It says, come, be forgiven. Be eased by God’s comfort; bask in the beauty of the love that only wants your good.
In the Gospel Jesus teaches “as one having authority.” Are we afraid of him too? I suppose the answer is yes. He drove out devils, and they became violently afraid, no joke about it They heard God's voice very clearly, maybe with more clarity than you or I do. They hardened their hearts like stone. “What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
There is plenty to be afraid of, and our fear is often warranted. But turning our hearts to stone is not warranted. We need to trust that God will remain with us no matter what, and that Christ’s gentle heart will banish our fear. That is how we can say, along with the psalm,
“If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.”
