Thoughts in this time of Lent

Catholics who pray the Liturgy of the Hours in this time of Lent can recite, with the Invitatory Prayer, the antiphon: “Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.” Just repeat that antiphon – out loud – slowly – and listen to the words!

“Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”

There is so very much spiritual power in this brief and simple exhortation! The spiritual power I speak of, which is at risk for the possibly inattentive human heart, is the power of the voice of the Lord – the power of His Word – the power of His Spirit – power to effect conversion, life-giving transformation, supernatural renovation in the soul. The antiphon can be found in Scripture in Psalm 95, and is quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews – similar exhortations are found in other places in Scripture as well.

Ps 95: 7b … Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on the day of Massah in the desert.

9 There your ancestors tested me;

they tried me though they had seen my works.

10 Forty years I loathed that generation;

I said: “This people’s heart goes astray;

they do not know my ways.”

11 Therefore I swore in my anger:

“They shall never enter my rest.”

This portion of the psalm points us to the trial of the Israelites in the wilderness, as they went their way under the leadership of Moses and Arron – thirsty for water in the desert, and untrusting of God in their understandable desert thirst. “Meribah,” and “Massah” indeed mean “the place of strife, of quarreling”, and “the place of the test,” respectively, and that place and that event was thus named in the verse, “Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert”. God gave them water – water from a rock, and “the Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:4)

The lesson is clear for us, today. The water is the Holy Spirit, and the Rock is Christ the Lord. From Him the Spirit is out-poured to mankind, out-poured through His Cross, and that Holy Spirit brings His life to humanity. From the death of Christ flows life for humanity – eternal, unending life even now – for men in the desert of a world of sin and hardness of heart.

The Spirit has a mission, which includes this promised by Jesus to His own, in His last hours before His last hour, and the Passion of His Self-offering: “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” (Jn 16:13) This truth includes, specifically, truth concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

Jn 16:8 And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:

9 sin, because they do not believe in me;

10 righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;

11 condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

In this way, the Spirit can lead a believer into life – the life of Christ – and out of the death of this world, a world condemned in the light of His holy truth. If we will listen! If we will “harden not our hearts”! If we will become “convicted” concerning our sins, “convicted” concerning sin in us, in the Church, in the world. If we will become convicted – and convinced – concerning His righteousness, and our call into His righteousness, and we grow in a life-long journey into His holiness, for His name’s sake. In this way, in the guiding and leading of the Holy Spirit, we can turn from the world condemned because of sin, and turn to salvation unto life in Christ.

If we will listen, and hear, and turn: “Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.” The Spirit speaks to us today, in the voice of conscience, in the quiet of our hearts, in the solitude of prayer, in the truth of Jesus Christ and His grace. We read in the Letter to the Hebrews,

Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.

13 Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.

14 We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end,

15 for it is said:

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.’”