Psalm Reflection: Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.“ - Psalm 95

Most of my life I have lived by one simple rule: no matter how much shopping I have done that day, when I get home I must try and get all of it into the house in one trip. 

Do you do that or know someone who does? I find it hilarious now, especially being a new parent and constantly feeling like a pack-mule with everything we have to lug around for this tiny person we love so much. Now we often have to do multiple trips to the car. And do you know what? I don’t even notice the difference. I could have been doing this for years and saving myself so much sweat, struggle, and dropped groceries, but I was too stubborn. I am still stubborn. Are you stubborn? Or are you too stubborn to admit that you’re stubborn?

All of us can be a little (or sometimes VERY) set in their ways. We get comfortable, set in our routine, and hesitant anytime there is a change or disruption to the way we like things. That is why it is sometimes so impossible to feel like we are discerning God’s will, or like we can trust in the Lord. When our plans do not work out, we get frustrated, angry, stressed, and often harden ourselves toward God. We can convince ourselves that God is distant and does not know what is best for us, or that He does not really know us at all.

Maybe we are too rigid or stubborn to accept that there might be a way better than ours. Maybe we should reflect on the words of the prophet Isaiah: 

“Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers” (Isaiah 43:18-19).  

This week, reflect on the things you might be clinging too hard to that God is asking you to let go of so He can do something new. Sometimes our hearts harden in the same way that bread does, it goes stale from being unused or left in the same spot. Allow God to breath new life into your heart and use you in new and exciting ways this week. We are praying for you!

See you in the Eucharist!