Thursday 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 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.”
A Lenten Reflection
Part of the process of growing from a child into an adult inevitably is loss of innocence. Characteristically, it comes with the first experience of existential pain. Whatever, the loss, the violation, the disappointment, we are jolted into the realization that life is not always our friend. Carefree confidence in the reliability of perfect happiness is replaced with the earthquake of discovering that bad and even unfair things can and will happen to us. This then puts us at an emotional and spiritual crossroads. We can either descend into a place of anger and disillusionment or rise to a place of perspective and insight.
To move healthily past loss of innocence requires that we step back from life’s hard lessons and learn to see within them their grace-filled opportunities. Moments that shatter naive notions of reality can move us to the mature understanding that we need in order to confidently and effectively engage with the real world. They bring us to that turning point when, as Saint Paul urges, we bid farewell to childish ways. It is not so much that we abandon our sense of optimism and wonder as it is that we deepen our capacity to endure and thrive under intense and demanding circumstances. Innocence is replaced with insight. Fragility is replaced with resilience.
Youth Minister Jayce O’Neal suggests that, “Cynicism is when a small mind and a hurt heart rejects the hope, love, and truth of a big and caring God.” Doubt as a constant state of mind may say more about what is broken in us than about what is broken around us. Rather than choosing between our faith and our doubts, we must seek our faith within our doubts. Lent reminds us that the Incarnation was God’s choice to join us in the midst of life’s ebb and flow and to teach us how to find him there. The Good News he brought was that just as he was able to embrace the world with all of its joys and all of its pain, we now are as well.
Prayer
Eternal Father, many times in his ministry your Son met with misunderstanding and cynicism, even as he brought healing into people’s lives. Just as he conquered faithlessness in others, conquer in us the ways that we can harden ourselves to your presence and grace. Help us to embrace a vision of this world as you would have it, living as instruments of your compassion and justice for all, especially those most in need. In this time of Lent, open us to new life, new hope, and new possibilities. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.