Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
March 31, 2011
To see the readings, click here:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/033111.shtml
I suppose it is a bad sign that the only part of the readings that inspires me today is the Psalm, huh? It is a Psalm we have used in Mass many times, so when I read it, I hear it in my head as sung prayer. "If today you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts."
I guess, really, it summarizes the message of the two other readings. The Jeremiah reading is about the people of Israel being faithless and hardening their hearts to God, and the Luke reading is about people who watched Jesus cast out a demon and managed to construe it, somehow, as the work of the devil. That sounds pretty hard-hearted, too.
The problem of course, is knowing when we are hearing God's voice. I'm sure we'd all like to believe that we would never harden our hearts to God. But if you look at how He reached out to people in both the Old and New Testaments, and throughout the history of the church, it is pretty easy to see how someone who didn't mean to close their heart to God might have done so.
I have a little confession to make here. When I hear accounts of the saints, I sometimes question the sanity of some of them. I will read these accounts of the things that got them canonized and I'll say to myself, "Really? That got them sainthood instead of a trip to the mental institution?" Because I think a lot of the things the saints did would be interpreted as bad mental health in today's culture. I mean, St. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of my parish, heard voices, for Pete's sake!
I have known people who felt God's call and went into ordained ministry when it completely upset the applecart of the life they had built. That takes courage and faith, and I respect it. But sometimes I wonder what OTHER actions the voice of God calls me or someone else to do that we don't act on because it just sounds so crazy, we have trouble being sure it is the voice of God. You know, for every white Christian who stood up in the civil rights movement and spoke on behalf of his black brothers and sisters, there were hundreds who didn't. Perhaps they heard some still, small voice urging them to do so, but the voices telling them to maintain the status quo were a lot louder. I'll leave it to the reader to pick the issue of today to which we can generalize that argument.
Lord God, I thank you for calling us all to serve. I pray that when you call, you will strengthen me in your spirit and give me the wisdom and courage to follow, even if it seems crazy. Thank you for the path you've led me on thus far in my life. Please continue to guide my steps where you would have me go. I pray for my loved ones, and for those who are sharing this Lenten journey with me, that you would guide them to their right paths as well. Please protect us from harm and help us to arrive at Easter better people than we are today. In Jesus name', Amen.
