Thursday of the
Third Week of Lent
(Jeremiah7:23-28; Luke 11:14-23)
The other day Pope Francis preached that worldliness
transforms souls so that they lose consciousness of reality. They no longer see other people as images of
God worthy of respect but as object of exploitation. This refusal to see, this blindness runs
through both readings today.
Jeremiah speaks of the people’s diffidence to the will of
God. He says that God desires to bring
them to happiness but they refuse to follow his lead. The gospel echoes this faithlessness on the
part of the people. Jesus has cast out a
demon – a sign that the reign of God has finally arrived. But witnesses make excuses to withhold their
belief in him. Frustrated, Jesus draws a
line in the sand. “Whoever is not with
me,” he says, “is against me.”
We pray that we have really made an option for
Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to tell
because we know that the human person has a million ways to deceive
herself. Yet we know that the best
prescription for making an authentic choice for Jesus is to imitate his ways –
all of them from prayer in the early morning to serving others well after the
sun goes down.
