Thursday March 11

Third Week of Lent

 

Listening to God’s Word

 

Introduction

“Listen to my voice,” says God through his prophet Jeremiah, and then he complains that God’s people fails to listen: they listen to themselves and follow their own ways. Their deeds do not speak the language of God. They do not follow God.

In the gospel Jesus cures the man who was mute. Worse than anyone who is deaf and mute and blind are those who do not want to hear and see, or to speak with sincerity. They do not follow Jesus. Their hearts are divided.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
you ask of us not so much
that we observe certain practices
but that our hearts are turned to you.
God, may we do your will in everything,
loyally and generously,
as Jesus did, your Son,
who did your will because he loved you
and who lives therefore with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

 

Reading 1: Jer 7:23-28

Thus says the LORD:
This is what I commanded my people:
Listen to my voice;
then I will be your God and you shall be my people.
Walk in all the ways that I command you,
so that you may prosper.

But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.
They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts
and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day,
I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.
Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed;
they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.
When you speak all these words to them,
they will not listen to you either;
when you call to them, they will not answer you.
Say to them:
This is the nation that does not listen
to the voice of the LORD, its God,
or take correction.
Faithfulness has disappeared;
the word itself is banished from their speech.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

(8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;

let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R.  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R.  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 

Acclamation: Jl 2:12-13

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
for I am gracious and merciful.

 

Gospel: Lk 11:14-23

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute,
and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.”
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,
his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
Whoever is not with me is against me,
and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

 

Intercessions

• That we may listen to the voice of our conscience, not only when it warns us against evil but also when it prompts us to do good, we pray:
• That when temptation comes, we follow Jesus our Lord, who overcame temptations for us, we pray:
• That those who are preparing for baptism may learn how the gospel will bring them joy and freedom, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
you send your Son among us
to be our living Word.
May we learn from him
that he did your will in everything
because he knew that this was your way
to reveal your saving love to all.
May we be on his side
and do your will in all things
as a living offering to you
now and for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God,
we are perhaps so busy
with our own plans for the future
and for a world we want to build up
that we forget your plans for a new world.
God, may we carry out your plans
by your own rules;
may we listen to your Word Jesus Christ
and forget our own little plans,
that we may build up a kingdom
that stands for ever and ever.

 

Blessing

“Obey my voice and I will be your God, and you shall be my people,” said the prophet. We thank God that God has made us his people. We do our best to live as the people God loves, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

Jesus presents Satan as the strong man in today’s Gospel but the one stronger who comes in is Jesus himself. St. Luke’s intention as he writes this passage is to explain in clear terms to the early Community of believers that Jesus is mightier than all the powers of the evil and the ultimate victory shall be with him.

Jesus is responding to his critics who accused him of acting out of Satan’s power. He is declaring in no uncertain terms that the power of God which is at work in his life and ministry is much stronger than the powers of Satan, the power of evil, in its various forms.

In his parable, Jesus is suggesting that he is engaged in a spiritual warfare with the powers of evil, of Satan. But the power of God active in him is much stronger and will ultimately win a decisive victory. Saint Paul expressed this message of Jesus very concisely in his letter to the Romans, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. No one can afford to be blind to sin and evil. It is staring at us on our face every day. Yet, the promise of the gospel is a huge consolation – that there is a greater power at work in the world, and that is the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. This power is stronger and will win out in the end.

God was at work in Jesus but the religious authorities could not see it. We also sometimes tend to be blind to the hand of God working among us. We fail to appreciate the good that people are doing; we might see the good but interpret it wrongly, attributing unfair motives to those who are doing it. Have you come across people who say, “by sheer luck, I escaped this catastrophe,” or “It was coincidence that there was a doctor in place, so that the patient could be attended to in time”?

When we recognise only the “luck”, or “chance” or “coincidence”, in fact, we fail to acknowledge the hand of God, in those circumstances and places. The truth is, there is nothing that happens by chance or by coincidence. And there is nothing called “luck” in the life of a believer. The Word of God poses this question before our reflection: Are we grateful enough to acknowledge the miracles that the hand of God works in our lives or do we take them for granted?