“In today’s reading, the Lord speaks a very simple command to His people: “Listen to my voice. Then I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
That is the heart of the message today.
If I were to summarize the whole reading in one word, it would be this: Listen.
God tells His people that He sent them prophets again and again. He kept reminding them, guiding them, warning them.
But the people did not listen.
Instead, the Scripture says something very sad. They “walked in the stubbornness of their hearts.”
In other words, they preferred to follow their own ideas rather than the voice of God.
And if we are honest, this is also our struggle today.
God continues to speak to us:
- through the Bible,
- through the teachings of the Church,
- through the voice of our conscience,
- through His preachers.
But many times we prefer to listen to other voices:
- the voice of pride,
- the voice of convenience,
- the voice of the world that tells us, “Do whatever you want.”
And when we stop listening to God, something slowly happens. We begin to lose our direction.
That is why the Lord says in the first line of today’s reading: “Listen to my voice, and walk in the way I command you, so that it may go well with you.”
God does not ask us to listen to Him because He wants to control us. He asks us to listen because He wants life to go well for us.
Like a loving parent guiding a child, God speaks because He loves us.
My dear brothers and sisters, Lent is a beautiful time to ask ourselves one simple question: Whose voice am I really listening to in my life? The voice of God? Or only the voice of my own desires?
If we learn again to listen to God — to slow down, to pray, to open our hearts to His Word — then something beautiful happens.
Our lives become clearer. Our hearts become peaceful. And we walk again on the path that leads to life.
Because the secret of a good life is very simple: Listen to God.”