Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS
Before entering into a covenant with his people, God impresses on them that he is “totally other.” He is beyond our theories, the images we have formed of him, our attempts to possess him. We can only stammer his name with words that say something about him, yet that never can encompass him. He is “in a dense cloud.” Still, he enters into a dialogue with his people.
Jesus complains that there are some who close their hearts to his message of life. His message is simple. Much of it is told in the moving stories of the parables. Why don’t people understand them? They are fickle and busy with themselves and their own little affairs. Or they think they are too learned and too self-sufficient, above the little ones, the humble, the simple people; these are the ones eager to be receptive to the Word of God and pay attention to it.
Reading 1: Ex 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b
1-2 Three months after leaving Egypt the Israelites entered the Wilderness of Sinai. They followed the route from Rephidim, arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai, and set up camp. Israel camped there facing the mountain.
9 God said to Moses, “Get ready. I’m about to come to you in a thick cloud so that the people can listen in and trust you completely when I speak with you.” Again Moses reported the people’s answer to God.
10-13 God said to Moses, “Go to the people. For the next two days get these people ready to meet the Holy God. Have them scrub their clothes so that on the third day they’ll be fully prepared, because on the third day God will come down on Mount Sinai and make his presence known to all the people. Post boundaries for the people all around, telling them, ‘Warning! Don’t climb the mountain. Don’t even touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain dies—a certain death. And no one is to touch that person, he’s to be stoned. That’s right—stoned. Or shot with arrows, shot to death. Animal or man, whichever—put to death.’
“A long blast from the horn will signal that it’s safe to climb the mountain.”
16 On the third day at daybreak, there were loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud covering the mountain, and an ear-piercing trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp shuddered in fear.
17 Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God. They stood at attention at the base of the mountain.
18-20 Mount Sinai was all smoke because God had come down on it as fire. Smoke poured from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain shuddered and heaved. The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered in thunder. God descended to the peak of Mount Sinai. God called Moses up to the peak and Moses climbed up.
Gospel: Mt 13:10-17
10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are stupid!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
Prayer
God, you care for us.
your Son Jesus, told us this in wonderful stories
about your forgiveness, your love, and your patient mercy.
Do not allow us to be so fickle or indifferent
that we close our eyes and ears to them,
but make us see and hear with our hearts
that these simple stories are speaking
of the very meaning of our lives.
Count us among the simple people
who understand what you are telling us
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.