‘If Today You Hear His Voice, Harden Not Your Hearts’

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S from Psalm 95,8 that is often used in many liturgical prayers. And rightly so, since we are notorious precisely for not listening to God but prefer to listen to our own selves and to the things of this world.

          We should learn how not to harden our hearts so we can be discerning and docile to the will and ways of God who actually is directing and shaping our life to be what he likes us to be, that is, to be his image and likeness, to be sharers of his life and nature.

Otherwise, the only thing that can happen to us is to fall into all kinds of evil, no matter how gifted we are temperamentally or intellectually, etc. This thing was graphically illustrated in the Book of Jeremiah which said:

“This thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart, and went backward and not forward…” (7,23-28)

God is always intervening in our lives and in all things of the world. He is actually communicating to us in all the events, conditions and situations of our lives. We should be aware of this basic condition of our life and act accordingly, always referring ourselves to him, instead of just relying on our common sense, intelligence and all other forms of human estimation.

While all our human faculties should be used, and in fact, should be used all the way to their limits, they should first of all be guided by our faith in God. We should never think, plan, desire, say or do anything without referring ourselves first of all to God.

We should learn to discern God in all the things of this world. This is a basic skill that we should all learn to acquire. And that is because there is actually nothing in the world that is not ultimately a creation of God, even if we ourselves invent them.

Whatever we invent, discover, produce or make out of our own creativity will always make use of what God as creator has already endowed in nature. And so, even if we are already enjoying the most sophisticated level of our man-made technology, we should never forget that God is its very foundation, its law and author.

In fact, we should be most wary when we make progress in our inventions and discoveries, because we can tend to forget God the more advances we make in this department. We tend to give more credit to ourselves than to God. And from there, we can expropriate for ourselves what actually belongs to God.

This danger is dramatized in the Book of Wisdom where a divine reproach is expressed: “All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan…For from the greatness and the beauty of created things, their original author, by analogy, is seen.” (13)

We should not allow our human affairs, no matter how riveting, absorbing and exciting they may be, to be detached from that basic reference to God, our Creator who continues to govern all of his creation through his providence.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com