Do Not Harden Your Hearts

One of the most important reasons that hinder repentance is hardness of heart. Therefore the Apostle Paul the Apostle repeats in his Epistle to the Epistle to the Hebrews this profound advice:

“If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb 3:8, 13, 15; 4:7).

Do not harden your hearts.

The spiritual person is affected by the smallest word. The slightest call from God softens his heart. The least work of the Holy Spirit melts him in love for God…

But the hard-hearted person is not quickly affected…

All spiritual means do not change him, no matter how much he confesses and partakes of Communion, no matter how much preaching he hears, and no matter how many spiritual books he reads… his heart has become hardened…

Like a branch: if it is soft, you can straighten it. But the dry branch cannot be straightened, as the poet said:

“If the branches are straightened, they become straight,
but wood does not soften when you try to straighten it.”

There are hearts that are hard; no matter what God does with them, they do not respond. Like the hard heart of Pharaoh, which was not softened by the ten plagues.

With every plague he would be temporarily affected, crying out for forgiveness and offering promises to God, but then he would return again with his hardness to sin! God wanted him to repent through the plagues, but the hardness of his heart hindered him…

There are people—like Pharaoh—who do not respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in them because their hearts are hard. God draws them through a sermon, through illness, through a trial, through the death of a loved one, and they are affected temporarily. Then their hearts return again to hardness…

Neither kindness affects them, nor severity affects them. Hard hearts: they are not influenced by spiritual means, nor by trials and tribulations.

Take as an example the wife of Lot, and how much the Lord worked with her:

The scenes of the wicked people in Sodom did not affect her; rather she married her daughters to the people of the sinful city. Then she was captured in the war of Chedorlaomer, and when Abraham rescued her she returned to the city. She saw the attempt of the people to assault the two angels, and how they were struck with blindness, yet she remained attached to the city. She heard the warning of the angels and their declaration of the burning of the city, and their command to leave it, and then their pulling the whole family out of the city for fear of the fire… Yet her hard heart was not affected, and she looked back!!

Hardness of heart—once it moved even a heart in hell to compassion, but she herself did not become compassionate.

As in the story of the rich man and Lazarus:

The rich man asked our father Abraham to send Lazarus to his family to warn them so that they would not come to the same torment as he did. But Abraham replied: even if one rises from the dead, they will not believe!

“They are a stiff-necked people,” as the Lord said about Israel.

All the Lord’s kindness toward them did not soften their hard hearts:

The Lord delivered them from slavery, parted the Red Sea for them, guided them with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

He gave them manna and quail and brought forth water for them from the rock, and dealt with them with all love and care. Yet in the hardness of their hearts their murmuring did not depart from them. They worshiped a golden calf. And God said about this hardness:

“All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people…”

The hard heart is like rocky ground; it cannot bring forth fruit, no matter how much you plow it, no matter how much seed you throw into it, and no matter how much water you pour on it. In hardness of heart a person is not affected, does not respond, and does not care—unlike the soft heart that is sensitive to the work of goodness.

We have an example in Nabal the Carmelite and his wife Abigail.

Nabal heard the request of David while he was in distress and was not moved. He heard David’s frightening threat and determination and did not move or care… But his wife Abigail was the opposite: as soon as she heard the news, she moved with all her goodness toward what is right, took her gifts, mounted her donkey, and met David. With all wisdom, kindness, and gentleness she repaired the entire situation… But her husband fulfilled the saying of Solomon: “Though you grind a fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart from him.”

Let us take another example: the mighty Samson.

He was a Nazirite to the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and God worked wonders through him. Yet there came a time when he fell into hardness of heart… when he became acquainted with Delilah. Sin led him step by step until his heart hardened toward the work of the Spirit in him.

Many times he saw the results of his sin before his eyes and did not repent. He saw how the woman delivered him into the hands of his enemies, and the Spirit showed him that she was not faithful to him, but his heart did not respond to the call of the Spirit at that time. It had become hardened…

His heart remained in its hardness, not responding to the work of the Spirit, until the mighty man collapsed, lost his vow, his hair, and his sight, and was led away captive!!

How hard is the heart that hears the voice of the Lord and does not respond! An example of this is Felix, who when he heard the words of Paul about righteousness, judgment, and self-control, became afraid—this indicates the voice of God in his heart. But instead of responding with repentance, he said to Paul: “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”

The hard heart flees from the voice of God and does not submit…

When a person hardens his heart, he rejects the divine call. But the Prodigal Son, when God spoke in his heart, said: “I will arise now and go to my father.” And immediately he arose and went to his father.

Augustine of Hippo spent a long time in error—not because his heart was hard, but because the voice had not yet reached him. When the voice of God reached him, he responded, repented, and became a saint.

Likewise Mary of Egypt, despite the length of her life in sin, when the voice of the Lord reached her, she immediately responded and walked in a life of holiness… and likewise Pelagia the Penitent.

Paul the Apostle—formerly Saul of Tarsus—although he persecuted the Church, was not hard-hearted. When the voice of God reached him, he responded immediately.

Although he was dragging men and women to prison and persecuting this way with great zeal, he did not resist the divine call, did not argue, and did not consult flesh and blood.

His heart was not hardened; rather he responded with ease and willingness… and he changed from Saul to Paul in a way that astonished everyone… There are those who receive the word of God like someone who finds great treasure.

The prophet David desired, committed adultery, and killed. But when the voice of God came to him, it found a responsive heart: he repented and soaked his bed with tears…

Likewise the Apostle Peter the Apostle: he denied, cursed, and said, “I do not know the man.” But when he remembered the word of the Lord when the rooster crowed, he wept bitterly with a heart melting in love for the Lord, not hardened. Therefore the Apostle says: “If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

If you hear His voice calling you to repentance or calling you to service…

Matthew the Apostle the tax collector was at the place of tax collection, busy with money and injustice. He heard one word: “Follow Me.” Immediately he left everything, arose, and followed the Lord. He did not harden his heart.

Likewise Simon Peter and Andrew the Apostle, when they heard the Lord’s voice: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,” immediately left everything and followed Him. They left the boat, the nets, the fishing, and the family.

They did not argue and did not harden their hearts…

Rather they responded to the voice with faith, quickly, and with joy.

The Bride of the Song at first hardened her heart when she heard His voice. The voice was flowing with tenderness and love: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one…” But she hardened herself and did not open, saying: “I have taken off my garment; how can I put it on? I have washed my feet; how can I defile them?”

But she did not continue in her hardness; rather she said: “My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my heart yearned for him… My soul went out when he spoke.”

She went out searching for him everywhere and charged the daughters of Jerusalem saying: “If you find my beloved, tell him that I am sick with love.”

This is the sensitive heart that cannot bear the anger of the Lord.

We do not say that the holy heart does not sin. All have sinned. But it is a heart that when the voice of God comes to it cannot continue in sin. It does not harden but responds.

David sinned, but he quickly returned and soaked his bed with tears. Peter sinned but went out and wept bitterly.

Their hearts were not hardened; tears of repentance are a sign of emotion and sensitivity.

What are the manifestations of this hardness?

Its first sign is that a person is not affected by the work of God within him.

The soft heart is quick to be affected: tears are always in his eyes, repentance always in his heart, and his return is easy and simple.

But the hard heart is not affected, no matter how much God speaks to him and no matter how much the Spirit works within him. Spiritual words do not affect him as they once did; neither the Church nor the sacraments nor the hymns squeeze his heart. Nothing of the spiritual means melts or inflames his heart… His tears have dried up and his heart has hardened.

Dryness, lukewarmness, and lack of feeling are all manifestations of inner hardness…

Such a person is not a fruitful tree. He does not feel the sap of life flowing in his veins. He does not become green, nor does his fragrant scent spread…

He becomes like a corpse in the Church—unmoving, unchanged, unaffected…

Such a person finds repentance difficult…

The Apostle Paul says in Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 6): “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful… receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.”

Poor is this land whose heart is hard, whose tears are dry, and which is full of stubbornness and argument…

What then are the causes of this hardness, and how is it treated? How does the heart become hard, and how can it be freed from its hardness?

This is what I would like us to talk about next time, God willing…

Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El‑Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Thirty-One) – 5-8-1977.

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