March 12/Third Thursday of Lent
Oh, if today you would listen to his voice. ~ Ps 95.7
After many years of marriage and motherhood, I have learned to identify the precise moment in a conversation when one of my children, or my husband, starts to tune out my well-meaning advice. A slight turn of the head, an infinitesimal glazing of the eye, and I know I’ve lost them (this is usually about ten seconds in). Closing our ears may be a perfectly acceptable strategy in the human sphere (although a bit more open-mindedness wouldn’t hurt, gang!). When it comes to our relationship with God, however, we need to think differently. Are we truly receptive to the word that God speaks to us through Scripture, through other human beings, and in the quiet of our hearts when we pray? Are we genuinely seeking to discern God’s will for our lives? How do we respond to what he may be asking of us, especially when it does not accord with our wishes? Rather than subordinate our own ambitions and desires to God’s plan, too often we close our ears and tune out his voice. As today’s psalm illustrates, we come by such spiritual deafness honestly. The faithless children of Israel — they of the hardened hearts and the stiffened necks — did not care for the path God had created for them in the desert wilderness, so they pursued their own way, with disastrous outcomes. At the heart of their willful deafness, and ours, is a lack of trust in God. No matter what wilderness we may wander through, to follow the way of the LORD is to open our ears to his voice and obey his loving will.
Loving Lord, Open my ears to hear your voice, open my heart to receive your love, and strengthen my resolve to do your will. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031226.cfm
To hear Rawn Harbor and friends sing “Psalm 95: If Today You Hear His Voice,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsAkf_LhYc8&list=RDFsAkf_LhYc8&start_radio=1
