Today’s Responsorial Psalm is a personal favorite: “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts”. My preference for this Psalm is strongly tied to a unique version of the Alleluia sung at my undergraduate college, one that always used this as the line before the Gospel. I cannot read those words without hearing that very specific tune.
The message of this Psalm resonates with that time in my life as well: college was a time of softening my heart. Due to a trauma when I was 16, I went to college very angry at God, questioning everything about the faith, and only going to Mass because I knew my parents would ask how it was. Being surrounded by my peers with hearts open to God, who chose every single week to worship, helped me begin to trust in God’s love again.
The other readings from today give additional examples of hearts open to God. Moses, while under attack from his own people, shows God his anger. He expresses his own fears and the concerns of his community. God responds and Moses trusts, taking the actions God requests.
The Samaritan woman in the Gospel is an unlikely companion to Jesus. She is Samaritan (unclean), at the well at noon (marginalized), and has had a storied past. Yet, Jesus highlights her dignity while sharing the truth of his identity. His ability to see her clearly (a person with inherent dignity) helps her to see him clearly (the Messiah).
Where are places where you can hear God’s voice? For me, God still speaks to me through the wisdom and kindness of my friends. I see our Creator’s love and ingenuity in nature. I recognize the delight of the divine in the giggle of my toddler. I see the cyclical nature of creation in my own body’s cycle. I have come to see that one of God’s favorite acts of creativity is to find new ways to reveal God’s self to us. Where will you hear God’s voice today?
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