DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS…

Hebrews 3:7-14 
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice,8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'”
12 Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.14 For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end,

Mark 1:40-45 

40 And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.”42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
43 And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.”45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

MEDITATION

THE HEBREW AUTHOR Issue a stern warning to the Christian community to hold one another accountable as and when things fall apart, rather than delay and wait for the morrow! He recall the rebellious behavior of many Israelites that was on full display during their testing walk with Yahweh in the desert, which caused numerous men and women to not reach the promised land—precluding them from experiencing or receiving Yahwehs grace, mercy and deliverance.  

THE GOSPEL READING: An ambivilent nervous leper who tested Jesus’ willingness to heal him, is more than pleasantly surprised that Christ responded to his petition, such that he did not honor Christs request that he not trumpet the work of healing and mercy he had received. The overzealous exuberance of the former leper made it difficult for Christ to openly enter the town to reach the hardened, stubborn unbelieving sinners who were hiding, because he trumpted his healing to those who have already heard about Christ.  

Believers “who have been blessed” and have a penchant to publicly pat ourselves on the back by constantly displaying our achievements and gloating about our success, never uttering a word about what we have lost because of our stupidity and stubbornness, can disuade and harden the heart of the; lonely, afflicted, marginalized, hungry and unemployed unbelieving hopeless ‘sinner’ who does not know what tommorow will bring. Those of us who are at the end of our tether not knowing which way to turn are called to not harden our hearts, but to have the courage to kneel and petition Christ to attend to our needs and deliver us from our waywardness and stubbornness. Moreover, let us approach a consecrated priest and make a sincere confession and be freed from sin. 

LET US PRAY: Psalms 95:6-11 

6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice!8 Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,9 when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways.”11 Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest.

Commentary. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.