March 28 / 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 that 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 prayerful quiet of our own hearts? Are we genuinely seeking to discern God’s will for our lives? How do we respond to what he asks of us, especially when it does not accord with our wishes? Rather than subordinate our own ambitions and desires to God’s plan, we often close our ears and tune out his voice. As today’s psalm illustrates, we come by such spiritual deafness honestly. The wayward children of Israel—they of the hardened hearts and the stiffened necks—did not care for God’s plan in the desert wilderness, and they pursued their own path 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, 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.
