“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” So the psalmist urges us in today’s Mass. Changing our hearts is important, but did you ever stop to think about the first part, hearing God’s voice? Even people who say they believe in God often think of him as some distant power. Perhaps he is like a clockmaker who spun up the world at the time of creation like a big clock and then just let it go to unwind itself over the course of history. Our psalm today gives us a very different image of the true God.
The psalm tells us that the God who made everything, including us, wants to speak to us. In fact, we should be listening, not just in general, but right now… TODAY! This is not a God who is distant and uninvolved. This is a God who is with us and wants to mix it up in our world. That’s the whole meaning of God becoming one of us in the incarnation, Jesus taking on our human flesh. Even better, when Jesus left this world at his Ascension, he promised to remain with us always. We are not abandoned. We are not alone.
Now, all of this might make us feel good to know that we have this divine protection and even communication. But there is something here that effects all of society. If, as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, we know that Christ has been raised, and that we have been raised with Christ, then we are free to “seek what is above.” I say “free” because, when you know that this world is not all there is, then you are not weighed down trying to get all your joy and happiness from this world. This is the lesson of the today’s gospel.
If this world is all there is, then you’ve got to try to get as much as possible of what this world offers. If you’re blessed and have a lot, then you need to build bigger barns and store it up. If material wealth and possessions are the only lasting happiness, then you have to hold on to it. You have to get as much for yourself as possible. This is why the truth of Christianity, the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, effects the entire culture. Imagine if everyone lived only for this world, taking and grasping desperately for everything they could get. What kind of world would this be? Now, consider that there are over a billion people who call themselves Christians, who know that there are “things above” that are greater than “what is on earth.” Think of the contrast between the great saints who give up all the material possessions compared to those who would be constantly at war to obtain more and more? Christians have not only the secret to happiness, but also the path to world peace.
Where do you seek happiness? Do you cling to the things of this world and live in fear of not having enough? How is God inviting you to a greater freedom by setting your heart on the things above? Talk to God about these things in your prayer this week, and then listen. You just might hear his voice.