Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
I’m one of those people that if I don’t recognize an incoming phone number on my phone I won’t answer it. I just let it go to voicemail with the intention that I’ll get back to it later if it’s important and I feel like it. How many times have we done this with God in our lives?
When I was in my RCIA classes nine years ago I remember a lot of talk about listening to the Lord. I didn’t really understand that concept until two years ago yesterday when I distinctly remember hearing God talk to me for the first time in my Catholic life. I was standing in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Pope Francis had just been elected and I was on pilgrimage. My major prayer intention was about whether or not to take a job out of state. I vividly remember hearing “I will take care of you child no matter where you go.” I felt so many emotions at that point. Joy in the fact that I had finally heard God’s voice and my prayer was answered but at the same time I was so fearful that I had just heard God’s voice. I didn’t expect my answer to be that clear to me. I spent a lot of time after that night waiting to hear God talk to me like that again but I haven’t. Or have I?
So many of us want a direct answer from God that when we go to him with our prayers and problems and don’t get that direct answer we get discouraged or disappointed that He hasn’t spoken to us. Maybe like the unknown phone number he has been calling to us and we have ignored it. Perhaps He spoke to us in a prayer we’ve read and we just glossed over the words. Maybe a priest has said something in a homily that we can relate to or has answered a question we’ve had. Maybe there has been a new person placed in our lives yet we don’t know why they are there. Many times we have not heard God speak to us because instead of having an open heart it has been closed with sin. This is why reconciliation is important not just during Lent but all year round. We move the sin aside to give space for the Lord to come to us. Jesus said “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you.”
This Lenten season let us pay close attention to the world around us. Who knows where and how God will be trying to speak to us and when He does, you may be surprised by what you hear.
Lindsey Joyce is a graduate student at the School of Nursing studying in the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Educator program.
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