I admit to getting caught up in Facebook debates. Usually of my own making. One of my Cursillo buddies likes to say that I enjoy “poking the sleeping bear”. And…I do! I think sometimes we become too complacent and have to wake people up to what is going on around them. Sometimes, yes, it is a political thought. But at other times it is a moral question and condition.
This is not a reflection on abortion but, often, abortion is the subject of my more controversial posts on Facebook. It brings out both support and condemnation for my viewpoints on the subject. It has spurred on lengthy debates between myself and the same people over and over…and over…and over. I give my positions on aspects of the debate. Often when life begins is a topic. A person may question my stance that life begins at conception. I respond with scientific articles clearly showing how experts in the fields of biology and embryology all agree that life begins at conception. But, still, the person will deny and deny. Disregarding the facts. It is as if there is some substance that prevents truth from entering their, you guessed it, their heart. Cor Durum. A hard heart.
The figure in history with a notorious hard heart was the Pharaoh in Egypt who would not let the Israelites go from slavery. Plague after plague afflicted Egypt and each time Moses would cry out, “Let My People Go”!! But Pharaoh would refuse every time. In the end Exodus states that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, necessitating the death of the first born across the land causing Pharaoh to relent. Of course, he again changed his mind and sent his army after the Israelites in the dessert only to be swallowed up by the Red Sea.
King Sihon of Heshbon from Deuteronomy 2:30 had his heart hardened when he would not allow the people of Israel to pass peacefully through his kingdom on the way to the Promised Land. And Israel as a nation repeatedly rejected God as they traveled 40 years in the dessert. Even after seeing miracle after miracle from God in the form of the plagues, dividing the Red Sea, giving them manna, water from a rock, defeating their enemies and giving them the Ten Commandments. They still turned to a golden calf and idol worship.
And in today’s Gospel the Pharisees refuse to see Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. As the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Even after seeing Jesus work miracle after miracle. Water into wine, multiplying fish and loaves, curing the blind and the lame, healing lepers and RAISING FROM the DEAD!! And the people still asked Him for signs of His divinity. After a time he was like, “Nope. Not happening any more. I am sooo done with you people. If raising someone from the dead is not going to convince you of who I am then NOTHING will”. Of course, this is my quote, not Jesus’ but you get the idea.
So why does God harden hearts? I mean isn’t everyone supposed to receive God’s mercy? That, right up to the end, they can receive salvation? That is absolutely true. God’s grace is always available to everyone to accept as a gift. As a FREE WILL gift. One that a person has the option to accept or reject. But at some point the evil of sin takes over. It is as if cement is mixed with blood and goes straight to a person’s heart forming a sort of “cardiac concrete”. Nothing then gets in or gets out.
And I believe at that point God is fully aware that this person will not return to Him. Then God fully hardens that person. God can then use this person for a greater good. In the case of Pharaoh, He used him to demonstrate His power in freeing the Israelites from slavery. He used the hardness of the Pharisees to contrast with the healing words of Jesus. It is as if the hardened heart of a person establishes an impenetrable wall and we are asked which side of that wall do we want to stand on. Do we stand with the Elect on the side of God or do we stand with the Non-elect, on the side of the world?
And in the reading from Jeremiah today, we see the prophet at the short end of a plot to take his life. “Like a lamb led to slaughter” Now who else does that sound like? And Jeremiah’s crime? Speaking the truth to the Israelites about recurring idolatry and appeasement to the Babylonians. The result? Hard hearts and defeat at the hands of Babylon.
There is a Hebrew word, HASHIVENU. It means return us to you. It is asking God to bring us back to Him. To say Hashivenu means that you recognize that you are no longer with God. You have drifted away. And you are asking Him to have mercy and bring you back under His care. There is no hardening of the heart here. You are asking for God’s grace to soften your heart and be open to receive Him. And God’s mercy and forgiveness would be on full display.
So, may we all fight Cor Durum with a resounding “Hashivenu”.
