Harden Not Your Heart

Jan 12: Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Should you listen to Jesus? You’d think that’d be an easy question, buuuuuut… wait ‘til you get to the twist ending of today’s Gospel.

But first, we’ve got Hebrews citing Psalms citing Exodus. It’s a cite-ception!

Reading 1

Heb 3:7-14

The Holy Spirit says:

    Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
        “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
        in the day of testing in the desert,
    where your ancestors tested and tried me
        and saw my works for forty years.
    Because of this I was provoked with that generation
        and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,
        and they do not know my ways.’
    As I swore in my wrath,
        ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.

The Israelites were following a literal pillar of fire through the desert, and yet didn’t fully trust God when it came time to enter the promised land.¹ Many people met Jesus Christ himself, personally, in Judea, and yet turned away from him.

Are you certain you haven’t hardened your heart? The only way to be sure is to continually examine our consciences, at least daily, and not deceive ourselves.

“Oh, it’s not that big a deal.”

“Times are different now.”

“I didn’t think it would hurt anyone.”

Small things become big things over time. That’s why the author wants you to focus on “today.” Today isn’t too big to be manageable, and if you consider your actions at least that regularly, you won’t develop evil and unfaithful hearts.

Responsorial Psalm

95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

R.     If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
    let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
    and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R.    If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
    “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
    as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
    they tested me though they had seen my works.” 
R.    If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
    I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,
    they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger:
    “They shall never enter my rest.”
R.    If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The traumatic event of the Exodus is the central, organizing metaphor around which the Israelites perceive their own nation, from ancient times (like the Babylonian exile) to the creation of the modern Israeli state.

The authors of Hebrews and this Psalm point to a different aspect, however. It’s not the Egyptian slave masters they must worry about, but rather their own selves. They tested God (“Massah” literally means “testing”) rather than trusting, and God made them wander the desert for 40 years because of it.

We are called to trust God, too, or we may not enter into his rest.

Alleluia

Mt 4:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

This is just a line from the Gospel! It’s like a one-line trailer for an upcoming feature attraction.

Gospel

Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

“If it be your will” is something we can attach to the end of any intercessory prayer. God can do anything in his infinite power, but in his infinite wisdom, he may choose not to, for reasons beyond our understanding.

Jesus does will the leper clean, but of course, healing isn’t enough. The poor man was an outcast from society; he needed to be seen by the priests to be clean before he could re-enter normal life.

So Jesus gives him two instructions: tell the priests, but don’t tell anyone else. I think this latter instruction shows us, once again, that Jesus was fully human. He had pity for the leper, but he also doesn’t want to be swarmed by crowds everywhere he goes.

Of course, he knew there was no way the former leper would be able to keep it to himself. Jesus eventually became a literal kind of outsider himself, only rather than people avoiding him, like the leper, they wouldn’t leave him alone!

But despite all this, Jesus still cleansed the leper. He did the right thing, knowing the negative consequences to his comfort and well-being.

Was the leper wrong to “publicize the whole matter”? In a sense, yes. The Son of God told him not to do something, and he did it anyway. But it wasn’t out of obstinance, or a hard heart, like the author of Hebrews warns against. In fact, just the opposite: it was because of joy! He was so happy to have encountered Christ, he wanted to share the good news!

I think any parent, teacher, or mentor of the young could identify with Jesus’ feelings at that moment. Mildly annoyed, but also pleased with the enthusiasm and joy of someone telling everyone about their new discovery.

Still, I hope the leper later apologized for this mild sin against Jesus’ convenience.

1. Exodus 17:7