Harden not your hearts
“Oh, that today you would hear his voice, “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion” (Heb 3:7)
We often hear this antiphon during the Liturgy of the Hours. Openness of heart is a condition for receiving God's blessing. It allows us to recognize inwardly the presence of God who works in our heart and thus to encounter Him. It is easily grasped by the person who converts. Then he feels the ease of prayer, the presence of God and His grace are somehow tangible. God’s gaze illuminates the world. Usually, however, the period of such transparency passes and gradually there is a problem with finding God in everyday life. Life's problems become more powerful, and God is slowly moving away. Gradually, the crisis is approaching. But fundamental choices are also made in the human heart. If the closeness of God was experienced only in emotional euphoria and man still desires only such an experience, he will easily doubt when confronted with reality. Hence the warning: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin” (Heb 3:12-13).
Our faith requires determination and a conscious struggle against the tendencies that lie dormant in us. It is necessary to entrust ourselves firmly to God not on the basis of experience, but on the basis of wise choice. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes: We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end (Heb 3:14). What appeared to us at the moment of conversion must be given the form of a concrete hierarchy of values and the resulting principle of choices made in life. In fact, in the perspective of experiencing the living God, the choice is between obedience to God and desires for related to earthly life. Such choices do not always play out between what is objectively good and what is bad. In the Gospel we have an apt illustration of this situation.
The leper man had a good desire: to regain his health. He received it. But the following text of the Gospel indicates that, despite such a great gift, he was not able to go deeper and open himself to God's presence. Jesus remained for him a miraculous physician in the temporal dimension. Openness of heart is an inner openness that has nothing to do with chatter, looking for confirmation of oneself towards other people. Rather, superficial openness leads to the loss of a precious encounter with God. This is why the Lord Jesus recommends silence after experiencing a miraculous healing.
The Eucharist also needs our silence so that we can become inwardly aware of the immensity of the grace we receive during it.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george