“…if today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.”
Our world has become harder. You would think with all the modern twists in life that didn’t exist when I came of age, email, texting, cell phones, social media, that we would be more connected, more in touch with each other’s needs and feelings, but in many ways the opposite is true. All of this modernity has allowed us to offend each other more efficiently, created more exacting ways to polarize and oppose each other’s thinking.
When I was younger there was a self defense mechanism: you disappeared. You went home, listened to records in your room. No one could reach you if you didn’t want to be reached. You left the chat.
Today, the chat doesn’t end. Even when you are not present, talk of, complete with pictures too, flow through the connections you have in life, for better or worse, some of the audience with good intentions towards you, and others wanting to tear you down. There is no reset button to just escape over the weekend or over a holiday break.
With the hardness now just a part of everyday life, do we harden our hearts to each other more easily?
My discussions of God and faith clearly upset some of my small audience. I’ve been “defriended” because I had the audacity to say that you cannot be simultaneously be both Catholic and Pro Choice. That’s not a condemnation towards women who made a terribly difficult decision, it’s just a fact that to be a Catholic you should be against the practice of abortion or medically assisted suicide. I’m not the Catholic police, I’m not here to judge you or scorn you if you choose differently, I was just stating the church doctrine.
Defriended. Someone’s heart was hardened to both me and Christ. Luckily, I sincerely don’t care about being defriended because the reality is that if we cannot have differing opinions and remain civil, were we ever really friends to begin with? Martyrs gave their lives for their faith, I lost a few people from high school that I haven’t interacted with in person in 41 years. I think I’ll survive.
But seriously, I don’t think my family or my extended family is that unique in America, yet I have had Uncles die and never reconcile their differences with their brothers, I have had cousins become estranged from their parents, their siblings, never to reconcile. Their hearts hardened and they were unable to find the words or the willingness to say I’m sorry, even if the fault didn’t lie with them.
Maybe you hold a legitimate issue with the Catholic Church. My father did but he would never discuss why. My Diocese is bankrupt and the parishes will give tremendous amounts of assets to settle lawsuits for past actions of clergy and religious lay people. It’s ok and natural to have a beef with the fragile humans that run our Churches, they are not infallible and clearly the make mistakes, ask them and they will tell you. What’s not ok is hardening your heart to Christ.
If you say you don’t believe, you’ve hardened your heart to the preponderance of real evidence to the contrary that’s all around us. It’s ok to be Thomas, to seek proof, but like Thomas, when you clear your mind of doubt, know that Jesus died for our sins, forgives us when we don’t deserve it, and will be the one who greets us on the other side.
Harden not your heart, not to each other and not to God.
