"Today if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts." These words from psalm 95 are among the most frequent refrains during Lent.  Why do we harden our hearts?  I suspect that the most fundamental answer is that God is saying things we would rather not hear.  When I was a boy my father would often ask "why can you always hear when I say who wants ice cream and never hear when I say set the table?".  Of course the answer is obvious. We have entered the holiest days of the Church Year.  May we be willng to listen even when God tells us things we would prefer not to hear.