Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Intention: For all who live in fear of violence, exploitation or abandonment, that our commitment to peace and justice will grow and help to end their suffering.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 4: 24-30
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
A Lenten Reflection
A popular topic at professional development workshops these days is managing change. Apparently, this stems from the fact that change, which is so necessary for organizations’ success and sustainability, is difficult because often their members resist it. Many people do not like change. They struggle with its risk, with its disruption and, most of all, with its implications. Change is personal. If things change, then I am going to have to change.
In Luke’s narrative on Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth, it is worth noting that Jesus was speaking to an audience made up largely of people who were happy with the predictable and comfortable messages that they had come to know. What they expected to hear was that God’s Kingdom was coming and that they all were to be saved. What he told them was that God’s Kingdom was already upon them and had found them unwilling to recognize it. His message was pointed: will you change yourselves in order for God’s salvation to at last visit you? Their vitriol was their answer.
Journalist Herbert Agar once observed, “The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” Change disturbs us, as do the prophets of change. While we are anxious for life to get better, we are not so anxious to be responsible for making it happen. However, that is the only way that it can happen. The time of Lent is a good time for us to come to terms with our own culpability for the state of our world, see ourselves as we truly are and need to be, and humbly accept God’s call to rise to the challenge of change for the sake of God’s Kingdom.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you are always with us, calling us to faithfulness in following your ways. Forgive us for those times when we have closed ourselves to your presence. In this time of Lent, help us to recognize you in the persons that we meet and the chances that we have to welcome you into our hearts. Make of us an open and grateful people, always ready to do your will. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.