March 8/Third Friday of Lent
“If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” ~ Ps 81.14, 17
It is a longstanding joke in my family that my father began to lose his hearing around the time that his three daughters became teenagers. His ability to focus on the morning newspaper – even as my sisters and I barricaded ourselves behind cereal boxes so that we wouldn’t have to look at each other – was impressive indeed. I can see now, of course, that selective hearing might have been necessary to his survival amid sisterly squabbles and adolescent angst. Whatever our circumstances, we all have experience at closing our ears to unwanted messages, particularly if they disrupt our peace, challenge our thinking, or call us to dismount from our comfortable perch and get involved. We appear to hear, but we do not hear — or to put it another way, we hear, but we do not obey. Interestingly, in the biblical languages, “to hear” is literally “to obey” — a single verb covers both meanings in Hebrew (šmʿá) and Greek (ἀκοὐω). But in our modern lives, the two are quite often divorced: just like the people of Israel, we stop up our ears against God’s command to walk in his ways, and choose our own direction. The natural consequence of our failure to listen is that God leaves us alone in the stubbornness of our hearts and, as in yesterday’s reading, in the stiffness of our necks. George Eliot tartly observed in Middlemarch, as she wrote of the impending marriage of Dorothea Brooke to Edward Casaubon, “And certainly, the mistakes that we . . . mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.” For those who have ears to hear – and to obey – God offers us the best of his love. Let us respond by heeding his call and walking in his ways.
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/030824.cfm
To hear the Sensational Nightingales sing “When We Walk with the Lord,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55e8unH7Tdw
