Hardness of Heart

Homily for Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s text from the Letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 95. “Oh, that today you would hear God’s voice.” Psalm 95 is used liberally in the Liturgy of the Hours. It is one of the Psalms that can be used as the invitatory, the first prayer of each day. One cannot emphasize too much the importance of the word “today” in this very first verse of the psalm.

The Exodus of the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt is the foundation for the entire Hebrew Scriptures. While most people would look to the book of Genesis as the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures, one must admit that without the Exodus, none of the rest of the writings would make sense. The image of the Exodus is used throughout the Scriptures but particularly in the return of the captives of the Babylonian exile after Cyrus the Great had emancipated them.

In the Christian Scriptures, the Exodus is the proleptic event of the redemption Jesus won for us by his death on the cross. Through both the experience of Jesus himself and that of his followers, the Church proclaims a New Exodus as we are freed from our slavery to sin through Baptism. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews cites Psalm 95 which is called as a salutary example of hardness of heart, as a warning against the danger of growing weary and giving up the journey. The early Christians are to remember the example of Israel’s revolt in the desert that cost a whole generation the loss of the promised land. Through this memory, we are called to faith in the promises of God to establish a new heaven and a new earth.

Hardness of heart can happen to anyone who does not take the time to recall God’s goodness in each of our lives. The Eucharist stands as a memorial of the suffering and death of Jesus which has earned us access to God. As we receive Jesus today, let him into your heart, the place where he wishes to dwell.