Word of the day

A reading from the Book of Exodus
Ex 32:7-14

The LORD said to Moses,
"Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
'This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'
The LORD said to Moses,
"I see how stiff-necked this people is.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation."

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
"Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say,
'With evil intent he brought them out,
that he might kill them in the mountains
and exterminate them from the face of the earth'?
Let your blazing wrath die down;
relent in punishing your people.
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.

From the Gospel according to John
Jn 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews:
"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John's.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.

"I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?"

If we all stop and look into our hearts today, we would see how many times — how many! — we have closed our ears and how many times we have become deaf”. And what does this deafness mean? “When a people, a community, but let us say, even a Christian community, a parish, a diocese closes its ears and becomes deaf to the Word of God, it seeks other voices, other lords, and it ends up involving idols, the idols which the world, worldliness, and society offer”. We become distant “from the living God”. Turning our backs hardens our hearts. And when we do not listen, the heart becomes harder, more closed within itself, hard and incapable of receiving anything (…) we risk becoming “‘unfaithful’ Catholics, ‘pagan’ Catholics, or even worse, ‘atheist’ Catholics, because we have no loving reference to the Living God”. This “not listening and turning our backs ... hardens our hearts”, and leads mankind “on the path of unfaithfulness”. (…) Each of us today can ask him- or herself: Do I stop to listen to the Word of God? Do I take the Bible in my hands and is He talking to me?; and, has my heart become hardened? Have I distanced myself from the Lord? Have I lost my faithfulness to the Lord and do I live with the idols that everyday worldliness offers? Have I lost the joy of the marvel of the first encounter with Jesus?.  Thus, “today is a day for listening”. “Listen today to our Lord’s voice”, and “do not harden your heart’”. Indeed, let us ask for this grace: the grace to listen so that our hearts may not harden. (Santa Marta, 23 March 2017)