Heb 3, 7-9 Oh, that today you would hear his voice

(Heb 3, 7-9) Oh, that today you would hear his voice

[7] Therefore, as the holy Spirit says: "Oh, that today you would hear his voice, [8] 'Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion in the day of testing in the desert, [9] where your ancestors tested and tried me and saw my works for forty years.

(CCC 1165) When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit (Cf. Mt 6:11; Heb 3:7- 4:11; Ps 95:7). This "today" of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history: Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover (St. Hippolytus, De pasch. 1-2 SCh 27, 117). (CCC 2836) "This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord (Cf. Mt 6:34; Ex 16:19), which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God. If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. If Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." Therefore, "today" is when Christ rises (St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5, 4, 26: PL 16, 453A; cf. Ps 2:7). (CCC 144) To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment. (CCC 615) "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom 5:19). By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities" (Isa 53:10-12). Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father (Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1529).