The Voice of the Lord

 

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.  Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it.”
Deuteronomy 18:18, 19

A funny thing happened on the way out of Egypt…

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s actually a very sad story.  For 400 years the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt.  Finally, they were liberated.  God had instructed Moses that he was to lead them to Mount Sinai where Moses had first encountered God in the burning bush and was called to be the deliverer of Israel.  The story was pretty glorious at that point.  There were the plagues capped by the death of the firstborn and then the glorious parting of the Red Sea.  But when they got to Sinai something very significant happened.

We read about it in the 20^th chapter of Exodus.  God came down upon the mountain to meet with His people.  But they were afraid and pleaded with Moses that he would be their spokesman and that they would not need to endure the terrifying experience of God’s presence and voice.  This was just the beginning of the trouble.

They chose to put distance between them and their God when God wanted to draw them nearer in intimacy.  Having separated themselves from God in this manner it was a short step to return to idolatry and build a Golden Calf [Ex. 32] or even disbelieve God altogether and refuse to enter the Promised Land He had prepared for them [Num. 13, 14].  This is why they wandered for 40 years in the desert until all of the disbelieving generation had died.

It is with all of this in mind that we come into the middle of our first reading today.  Deuteronomy means “Second Law” and it is likely a “sermon” in which Moses is preparing the present generation to enter into the Promised Land.  He reminds them of how they had refused the Lord before.  But he also hints at something that was beyond any of them.

“A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.  This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’”  Of course, we know this refers to our Lord.  Since the people could not endure to hear God speak from heaven in such a dramatic fashion He chose to become human like us so that we could hear Him speak in that way.  However, note what Moses says as he continues: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.  Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it.” 

God was saying that when He came among us in the Person of Christ He would teach us perfectly all that we need to know and we would have the obligation to obey Him.  With this in mind, note what is said in today’s Gospel.

Jesus comes to the synagogue in Capernaum.  He teaches “as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  To illustrate the point, St. Mark records a moment when a demon-possessed man was delivered by Jesus’ word.  They were in awe to see what power and authority He wielded.

But of course, not everyone who heard Jesus obeyed what He said.  The scribes and Pharisees, as a whole, did not.  And there were a number of people who didn’t believe even though they saw His miracles.  The same is unfortunately true of many today.

We have the words of Jesus recorded in Sacred Scripture.  In addition, we have the living word of Christ spoken through the Church.  These two harmonize to remind us of all that Christ has taught.  But too often we don’t listen.  Like the Israelites, it’s too easy for us to run from the uncomfortable word of God and choose our own idols instead.

What has Jesus said?  Take, for instance, the “hard saying” from John 6: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  The Church tells us this refers to the Holy Eucharist and compels us to attend Mass where this gift is given to us.  Yet, many people reject this teaching.  Even many Catholics refuse to go to Mass because they have “better things to do”. 

Or how about Jesus’ teaching on marriage, and divorce: “God made them male and female.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder… Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery,” [Mark 10:6-9, 11-12].

Then there are all those things taught in the Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemy… turn the other cheek… go the extra mile,” and so many other things.  Deuteronomy tells us that we have an obligation to hear and obey these words and that if we don’t we will answer for it.

But it doesn’t stop there.  If we, like the Israelites, have distanced ourselves from God so that we do not hear His voice then we cannot discern what He is saying to us on an individual level.  We cannot discern our vocation.  We cannot walk in His will.  We cannot enjoy His blessings, resist temptation, or avoid sin.  We are left powerless to aimlessly wander and flail in a misguided attempt to try to be “a good person”.  There’s so much more.  And that’s why God wants us to draw near and listen for His voice.

The Church is suffering greatly because of this.  In our second reading St. Paul speaks of the consecrated life.  We have all but disparaged it.  “That’s fine for others, but not for us… or our children.”  Parents don’t, as a whole, encourage their sons and daughters to prayerfully consider the priesthood or the religious life.  They want grandchildren.  We have mistakenly thought that money, positions, careers, and things are so much more fulfilling than a life dedicated to the Church.  To be sure, God will call many to Holy Matrimony.  But He is also calling many to Holy Orders; much more than are responding. 

We must counter what happened so long ago at Sinai.  We cannot be afraid to hear the voice of the Lord.  He only longs to draw us close in intimacy and to bless us.  Further, He would then enlist us to be co-laborers with Him to bring His blessings into the world.  Why are we so afraid?

Dear friends, let me exhort you with the antiphon from our Psalm: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  So many blessings await you as you open up to hear from heaven.  And more, so many blessings await the world around you as you respond in obedience to that voice.  Don’t be afraid.  Don’t make the choice to let others be your spokesmen.  Draw near and let God speak to your heart.  There is great grace to be had.  Healing will flow.  And the peace, joy, and love for which we crave will at last be ours!