First Reading:
Dt 18:15-20
Responsorial
Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
Second
Reading: 1 Cor 7:32-35
Gospel: Mk 1:21-28
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your
heart.” (Ps 95:7-8) For all deacons and priests and those lay people of the Church
who also pray the Liturgy of the Hours, this is a familiar and challenging
verse of Scripture. Each and every day we pray the Divine Office with and on
behalf of the entire Church. Each and every day our office begins with Psalm 95
that we just sung. This Psalm is a reminder of the time-sensitive nature of God’s
grace. Grace is always about ‘today’. It is a lesson the Israelites wandering
in the desert were hard-pressed to learn. Each morning God provided them with
manna to eat. He gave them just enough to keep them fed a single day. If they
tried to collect more, it would simply rot the next morning. The Israelites had
to depend on the grace of God each day to live. When they finally arrived at
the Promised Land, they were afraid and refused to enter as God had commanded. Because
of their hardness of heart, the Israelites lost their graced opportunity – they
did not enter the Promised Land until they had wandered another forty years and
an entire generation had died. Their today run out. This Psalm was written as
reminder to the Jewish people and stands for Christians as well as a warning to
what happens when we engage in infidelity to God and harden our hearts. “The
day of decision is always ‘now’ because the gift of salvation is always ‘today.’”[1] The
day-old manna is not edible. “If today you hear his voice, harden not your
heart.”
Our Gospel reading today takes place
in Capernaum, a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. This city
was kind of a home base to Jesus for his three years of preaching and teaching
in the Galilee area. He would frequently return to Capernaum for rest and a
good meal. This was where Peter, Andrew, John, and James were from and so Jesus
and the Apostles stayed at the house of Peter. In the Gospel, when the man in
the temple heard Jesus proclaiming the message of the Gospel he cried out in
fear. Why did he do that? Perhaps he realized that the Gospel challenges us to
change our lives and he was afraid to do so. His resistance to change caused
the demon inside him to cry out to Jesus “Have you come to destroy us?” The
demon recognized Jesus for who he truly was and that he spoke with the
authority of the Christ and so it had no choice but to obey. In Capernaum that
day, Jesus had presented the town with the opportunity of grace. You could say he
offered their manna for the day. But how did they respond? Did they listen to
the call of the Gospel to change? Did they instead cling to their demons?
About three years ago, Father Robbins and I
were blessed by the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre to make a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. One of our stops was in Capernaum on the shores of Galilee. It was a
located on a beautiful hillside with a few tress and lots of grass and flowers.
We made our way through the piles of rocks that are all that remain of Capernaum.
We stood in the ruins of a Roman temple that was built on top of the ruins of
the synagogue where Jesus taught in today’s Gospel reading. A modern church is
built on top of the ruins of the house of Peter. But that is all that is left of
the town. Nobody lives there anymore. Our tour guide reminded us that every
city near Galilee where Jesus preached and the people ultimately rejected him
is no longer standing. The people of Capernaum heard the authority of Jesus
that day, saw him command demons to flee that day, and yet they allowed their
hearts to be hardened. They forgot the message of the Psalm – “If today you
hear his voice, harden not your heart.”
The lesson of Capernaum to us is unmistakable,
my brethren. They did not heed the words of the Psalm and so they missed their opportunity.
Jesus Christ offered them the good news of the Gospel, but they hardened their
hearts. Like their forefathers in the desert, they missed their ‘today.’ This
hard lesson is for us an opportunity to reflect on our own lives. Are we afraid
to make the changes that the Gospel message requires of us? Do we harden our
hearts and hold on to our own personal demons? We have to ask ourselves these
hard questions, my dear Christians. Do I spend more energy defending political stances
than in defending the lives of the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled? Do I
spend more time on social media spreading division than I spend with my God
praying for peace? Do I obstinately cling to personal beliefs that are opposed
to the teaching of Holy Mother Church, the Bride of Christ? We each must look
deeply into our own heart and ask
ourself ‘What is the challenge of faith the Gospel presents for me? What part
of my life is God asking me to give up so he can feed me the manna I need to be
fully alive?’ Jesus meets us where
we are, but he loves us too much to leave us there.
My precious brethren, very soon we
will receive Holy Communion, the Bread of Life, the Eucharistic manna. As we
prepare to approach the holy altar of sacrifice, today let us resolve to open our hearts to the message of the Gospel.
Today let us be open to changing our
lives to become more conformed to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross
for us to give us the gift of salvation. But we have to choose to accept that
gift today. The promise of salvation
is guaranteed, but tomorrow is not. “If today you hear his voice, harden not
your heart.”
St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, Pray for us.
[1]
Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms,
(Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2011), 187.
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