Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 31, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 95, once again a call to a holy tenderheartedness – that mix of love, discernment, and generosity that magnetizes us into dynamic relationship with God.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
Psalm 95: 7-9
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
Our other Sunday readings, which Psalm 95 anchors, clarify the reason we seek this tenderheartedness. It is so that we might not only hear, but really listen and respond to the Truth of God in our lives.
Those who will not listen to my words
Deuteronomy 18:18
which a prophet speaks in my name,
I myself will make them answer for it.
In our first reading from Deuteronomy, the people were confused. They were passing into a new land with lots of rivaling religions and spiritualities. Moses was nearing the end of his life and leadership over them. They wanted to know who to listen to and how to behave in order to stay in God’s favor.
God promises that God’s voice will come through a prophet like Moses:
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,
Deuteronomy 18: 19
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
In our Gospel, we see Jesus – the fulfillment of the Deuteronomic Promise. The people witnessing his power are amazed. They struggle with whether they can believe in him when he seems just one of them, a Nazarene, Joseph’s son.
But some could believe – readily. Some, like the disciples, discerned quickly the Truth Jesus was. They heard, listened, believed and obeyed the Word.
Our psalm suggests that such readiness, such tenderheartedness comes from the consistent practice of relationship with God through praise, witness, thanksgiving, prayer, worship, humility, and obedience.
To me, it boils down to this:
- let your life unfold in God’s Presence
- be silent under God’s loving gaze
- thank God for all you have been given
- realize you are nothing without God
- listen to your life as God speaks it to you
- act on what you hear
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to the Lord.
R. If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For the Lord is our God,
and we are the people God shepherds, the flock God guides.
Poetry: Rumi
I keep telling my heart,
“Go easy now.
I am submerged in golden treasure.”
It replies,
“Why should I be afraid of love?”
Music: Soften My Heart – by Music Meets Heaven
Lavish Mercy 