THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT
Jer 7: 23-28 Ps 95: 1-2, 6-9 Lk 11: 14-23
VICTORY WITH CHRIST, FAILURE WITHOUT HIM!
As we plunge deeper into the holy season of Lent, today’s Liturgy of the word is making a scan of our soul. Prophet Jeremiah finds his audience adamant and obstinate, far from the very humble people who were liberated from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt and who were given the land flowing with milk and honey. They have forgotten all about the past and they are now far away from the promise they made to be docile and obedient to Yahweh’s commandments so as to be able to live a truly happy life as God’s chosen people.
The deterioration of religion happens when we think that by religious practices we are satisfying a hungry and angry God. Our God is neither. He is only concerned about our wholesome well-being. He cannot be bribed out by donations and costly sacrifices while our hands are dripping with the blood of injustice and immoral living. Wrong is wrong even if every body does it, and right is still right even if nobody does it. What God wants is our moral and spiritual growth in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus called us to follow him; to be his disciples. But we hide behind some excuses of cultic practices and pious devotions as substitutes to clean, honest and value-based life. The reason is our difficulty to make the needed changes to our lifestyle.
In such a heart, the evil powers will find ample place to hide themselves in. For often we compromise with evil as our passions and desires are unruly and we are comfortable with them even when we know that they do not give us interior peace and serenity. When we do not have interior life, the evil in us spreads on and on even reaching out to our families; in the places we work and the people we interact with. We are invited today to make Jesus of the Gospels our permanent communion of life who guides us in all our decisions and the evil will be defeated and we will always win in the long term.
Response: O that today you would listen to his voice!
Harden not your hearts.
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