Thursday March 24, 2022

Thursday of 3rd Week in Lent

           

Listening to God’s Word      

“Listen to my voice,” says God through his prophet Jeremiah, and then, he complains that God’s people fails to listen, that 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.

 

First Reading – Jeremiah 7:23-28

“The Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: ‘Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don’t want them! When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such. But I did say this, commanded this: “Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.”  “‘But do you think they listened? Not a word of it. They did just what they wanted to do, indulged any and every evil whim and got worse day by day. From the time your ancestors left the land of Egypt until now, I’ve supplied a steady stream of my servants the prophets, but do you think the people listened? Not once. Stubborn as mules and worse than their ancestors!’ “Tell them all this, but don’t expect them to listen. Call out to them, but don’t expect an answer. Tell them, ‘You are the nation that wouldn’t obey God, that refused all discipline. Truth has disappeared. There’s not a trace of it left in your mouths.

 

Gospel – Luke 11:14-23

Jesus delivered a man from a demon that had kept him speechless. The demon gone, the man started talking a blue streak, taking the crowd by complete surprise. But some from the crowd were cynical. “Black magic,” they said. “Some devil trick he’s pulled from his sleeve.” Others were skeptical, waiting around for him to prove himself with a spectacular miracle. Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Any country in civil war for very long is wasted. A constantly squabbling family falls to pieces. If Satan cancels Satan, is there any Satan left? You accuse me of ganging up with the Devil, the prince of demons, to cast out demons, but if you’re slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil who kicks out devils, doesn’t the same mud stick to your own exorcists? But if it’s God’s finger I’m pointing that sends the demons on their way, then God’s kingdom is here for sure. “When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he’s beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered. “This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.

 

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. Amen.

 

Reflection:

 

The Finger of God at work

In the day’s liturgy, the Church wants each one of us to examine our conscience on our faithfulness to the Lord. Faithfulness to the Lord is not about attending Sunday Masses. It is about being aware of not allowing ourselves to be stubborn and deaf, shutting the Lord out and doing what we want.

When Jesus performed miracles and healed the sick, the stubborn Jewish leadership said it was through the power of Beelzebub, the leader of demons. A person with a hardened heart is unhappy with the Church, the faith in the Lord, and puts God aside with an excuse and discredits, slanders God. Pope Francis explains the passage and says, “One cannot be with Jesus and be at a distance. Either you are with Jesus or you are against Jesus; either you are faithful or you are unfaithful; either you have an obedient heart or you have lost your fidelity.”

Our hearts may be as hard as stone, many times we may have discredited and disobeyed the Lord, but there is still time. This is the time of mercy of the Lord: let us open our hearts because he is in us.

Jesus says, the Satan is strong, but the one who comes in is stronger – that is Jesus himself. He is mightier than all the evil powers and the ultimate victory shall be with him.

In his parable, Jesus is suggesting that he is engaged in a spiritual warfare with the Satan. Saint Paul expressed similar feelings in his letter to the Romans: ‘Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. The evil one stares on our face every day in our moments of sinfulness, and we are so prone to our weak behaviours. Yet, the promise of Jesus is a huge consolation – that there is a greater power – the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. The devil cannot win and the ultimate victory belongs to God.

We are sometimes blind to the hand of God working in us. We fail to appreciate the good that people do; Have you come across people who say, “by sheer luck, I escaped this accident” or “It was coincidence that there was a doctor available, so that the patient could be attended to in time”?

When we recognise only the “luck”, or “chances” or “coincidences”, we fail to acknowledge the hand of God, in those circumstances and places. 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 for 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?

 

Video available on Youtube : The Finger of God at work