Do we see, hear, believe? It is what Lent invites us to do

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This week, Father Perry writes from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
A reflection on the daily readings, for Thursday of the Third Week of Lent, by Father Perry.
+ How many ways could the Lord tell his people that they were stubborn and stiff-necked, and would not listen or hear or see or pay attention, or open their hearts or care at all about what the Lord wanted to teach them?
And tell them and show them how he wished to guide their lives to prosperity and joyfulness?
Can one even imagine God saying to us what he said to them through the prophet: “you turned your backs, not your faces, to me.”
About the only saying God was not familiar with, but probably would be today, is: “Talk to the hand!”
That one wasn’t, but probably would now be, in his repertoire.
But why would we not listen to our God? Why would we not pay attention?
Why wouldn’t we be convinced of his love for us?
When someone loves someone, they often like to give gifts to show their love; it just flows naturally out of love.
So let’s imagine, for a moment, the immensity of God’s love for us.
If you are a lover of birds, for example, take this little fact into your consciousness, and pause to appreciate just how crazily in love God is with us.
He could have given us a few species of birds, or even just one. But instead, it is as if God said: “So you like birds. Well then take this in, if you will.”
Fact: There are about 9,000 species of birds, divided into 24 orders and 146 families.
To name just a few, there are: loons, auks and buntings, rheas, motmots and toucans, ostriches, guineafowl and woodhoopoes, pheasants, pittas and babblers, emus, cockatoos and owlet-frogmouths and — OK God. STOP!
I know you love me. You have us every type of bird imaginable — from the gorgeous singers and beautifully feathered to the strange, and even ugly (it is a matter of taste), to the sublime.
And then we turn our backs, or tell God to talk to the hand or harden our hearts.
Is it not, once again, that incredible mystery of sin and spiritual dumb-ness that we are so expert at doing and being.
+ Is it not it in the same vein in the experience of Jesus and his people?
He cast out demons, and freed those so possessed they were mute and speechless; and he gave them peace in their spirit and souls, and gave them back their lives.
What more could he do to prove his love and to gift others with that love?
And even then, some were incredulous and accused him of being in league with Satan.
Preposterous? Of course!
And yet, that is how it was.
Jesus’ final remark about their stubborness and inability to open to his love was simply expressed: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
A threat? No, not really; rather, a sad fact.
And do we gather or scatter? Are we with or against?
Do we see and hear and believe?
That, once again, is what Lent invites us to do.
And the psalmist, once again, declares in this way: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
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