Thursday in III Week of Lent
Mass Readings: Jer 7:23-28; Ps 95:1-2, 6-7a. 7b-9; Lk 11:14-23
Ke Verse to
Ponder:
"Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on
house (Lk 11:17).
The First Reading
The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah reaffirms Yahweh’s invitation
to His people: “But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be
your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command
you, so that it may be well with you’” (Jer 7:23).
However, at the end of the passage we hear the Lord lament that the people
did not heed His voice or obey His commandments. The people of Israel disobeyed
the Lord and became stubborn, refusing to listen to the voice of God. Yet God
continued to pursue them with patience, repeatedly sending prophets to guide
and assist them.
In yesterday’s first reading, we heard Yahweh instructing His people to
observe His ordinances:
“So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching
you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the
LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you” (Deut 4:1). A few verses later,
Yahweh praises the people by affirming that if they faithfully observe these
ordinances, they will be recognized as a wise nation: “You must observe them
diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who,
when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a
wise and discerning people!’ And what other great nation has statutes and
ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?”
(Deut 4:6. 8).
Yet today’s reading reveals the tragic reality of their failure to remain
faithful to God’s commandments. They did not listen to His voice, and God
reminds the prophet that the people will not listen to his words either.
Therefore, God instructs Jeremiah to proclaim this message against them: “This
is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not
accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips” (Jer
7:23–28).
The Gospel Reading
Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 11:14–23) presents a discourse of Jesus on
exorcism after He casts out a demon that had made a man mute and restores his
speech. Some of the Pharisees, who were jealous of Jesus’ power, immediately
accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of the
demons. Their accusation lacks logic. Sadly, many people behave in a similar
way today—criticizing or condemning those who do good in society. Even if we
ourselves do not always do good, we should at least refrain from making
malicious accusations against those who serve others.
The Pharisees not only misunderstood Jesus but also attempted to damage His
reputation and undermine His growing influence among the people. Jesus
responded to them wisely and showed that their accusation was false on two
important grounds.
First, Beelzebul cannot be the power behind Jesus’ exorcisms. Jesus
explains that if a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
Therefore, Satan cannot be working against himself. Instead, Jesus declares
that He casts out demons “by the finger of God,” which is a clear sign
that God’s power is at work in Him.
The expression “by the finger of God” also refers to the action of
the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, Jesus has the authority to
subdue evil spirits and bring healing and freedom to the people. Hence, Jesus
explains that if Satan were fighting against himself, his kingdom would
collapse.
Secondly, Jesus exposes the inconsistency of their accusation by reminding
them that some of their own followers also practiced exorcism. If they claimed
that Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebul, then logically they would have to
accuse their own exorcists of the same collaboration with evil. As Jesus says: “Every
kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If
Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? — for you
say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your exorcists cast them out?” (Lk 11:17–19).
Jesus reiterates that He casts out demons by the finger of God, and
this is a clear sign that the Kingdom of God has arrived among them: “But if it
is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has
come upon you” (Lk 11:20). In the Gospel of Matthew, the phrase “finger of
God” is closely associated with the Spirit of God. According to many
biblical scholars, this expression also recalls Exodus 8:19, where Pharaoh’s
magicians, witnessing the plagues brought by Moses, declared: “This is the
finger of God.”
Pharaoh and his magicians represented the forces of evil and oppression. By
using this expression, Luke shows his readers that just as God worked through
Moses to liberate His people from slavery in Egypt, now in the New Testament
God is liberating His people from the power of evil through the ministry of
Jesus, His Son. Jesus further explains that a strong man can only be defeated
by someone stronger than he. Through His powerful ministry in the name of the
Father, Jesus is that stronger one who conquers and subdues the powers of evil.
Points for Personal Reflection
Do we make an effort to
listen attentively to the Word of God and to His voice in our lives? In this
season of Lent, God invites us to open our hearts and truly listen to Him. If
we listen to the Lord and to those whom He sends to guide us, we will receive
abundant blessings.
We are also called to
struggle against everything that distances us from Jesus—every obstacle that
prevents us from being close to Him and every evil desire that weakens our
relationship with Him. As Jesus clearly states: “Whoever is not with me is
against me” (Lk 11:23).
Christ is the stronger
one who protects our inner home—our hearts. Let us allow the Lord to
transform us, to purify our words, and to deepen our relationship with Him so
that we may proclaim His greatness to others.
May Jesus free us from
every power of evil. May He rule over our hearts, our minds, and our wills.
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Friday in III Week of Lent
Key Verse to
Ponder:
"Which commandment is the first of all?" (Mk 12:28).
The First Reading
The first reading from the prophet Hosea addresses the people of
Israel with a strong call to repentance and conversion. The prophet exhorts
them to return to the Lord: “Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you
have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the
LORD; say to him, ‘Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will
offer the fruit of our lips’” (Hos 14:1–2).
The invitation to “return” to the Lord becomes a key theme during
this season of Lent. Lent constantly reminds us that we must turn back to God
with sincere hearts, knowing that there is always room for us in His loving
heart. No matter how far we may have strayed, God never closes the door to
those who sincerely seek Him.
The people of Israel were warned not to place their trust in their
possessions or in political alliances with their pagan neighbours. Instead,
they were called to place their complete trust in the Lord. God’s message
through Hosea was an open invitation for His people to return and receive pardon,
healing, and restoration. All that was required was a sincere return to
Him, for God Himself promises to heal their unfaithfulness: “I will heal
their faithlessness; I will love them freely” (Hos 14:4).
Those who trust in the
Lord will experience peace, renewal, and prosperity. Using beautiful imagery,
God describes the blessings that await His people: “I will be like the dew
to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the forests of Lebanon.
His shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his
fragrance like that of Lebanon.
They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish like a garden;
they shall blossom like the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of
Lebanon” (Hos 14:5–7).
God continually invites
His people to listen to His voice. Faithfulness and obedience to God’s law
bring true life, peace, and prosperity.
The Gospel Reading
Today’s Gospel reading presents the question concerning the greatest
commandment. A scribe approaches Jesus and asks Him about the most
important commandment. Jesus immediately responds by presenting the double
commandment of love: love of God and love of neighbour.
First, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4–5, presenting it as the greatest
commandment (Mk 12:29–30). He then adds the second commandment from Leviticus
19:18 (Mk 12:31). The scribe is deeply impressed by Jesus’ answer and
acknowledges its profound truth, saying that these two commandments are far
more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices: “This is much more
important than the whole of burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mk 12:33). Matthew
expresses the same conclusion in slightly different words: “On these two
commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40).
Jesus affirms that the first commandment is contained in the Shema,
the great Hebrew prayer that faithful Jews recited every morning and evening: “Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength” (Mk 12:29–30).
The Hebrew word for “hear” at the beginning of the prayer is šĕmaʿ.
The complete Shema prayer is composed of three passages from the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 6:4–9; 11:13–21; and Numbers 15:37–41.
This commandment calls us
to love God with our entire being. The four expressions used by Jesus
describe the totality of human life:
- To love God with all your heart – The heart represents the center of our
feelings and desires.
- To love God with all your soul – The soul represents the depth of our
personal identity and the place where we make decisions.
Tom Holladay, in his book The Relationship Principles of Jesus
(2008), describes the soul as “your God-given personality, the passion with
which you live, and the very core of your being.”
- To love God with all your mind – The mind is the place of thought,
reflection, understanding, and learning.
- To love God with all your strength – Strength refers to our actions and the way
we physically interact with the world around us.
In short, we are called
to love God with our feelings, our decisions, our thoughts, and our actions—with
our whole life.
The prophet Jeremiah reminds us how deeply God examines the human heart: “The
heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? I the
LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their
ways” (Jer 17:9–10). The second commandment, taken from Leviticus
19:18, is equally demanding: “You shall love your neighbour as
yourself.”
This commandment naturally flows from the first. One cannot truly love God
without loving one’s neighbour. Love of God and love of humanity are
inseparable. In fact, Jesus teaches that practicing these two commandments
leads one to eternal life (cf. Mt 19:16). The meaning of loving one’s neighbour
is beautifully illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk
10:29–37).
Points for Personal Reflection
The greatest commandment
spoken of by Jesus in today’s Gospel is the center and synthesis of the
entire Gospel message, and it should become the guiding program of every
Christian life.
Today’s Gospel challenges
us to ask ourselves an important question: What is the first priority in our
lives? Is it truly the love of God and the love of our neighbour?
When a person genuinely
experiences the love of God and trusts in His grace and blessings, it naturally
leads to love for others. Often our failure to love God fully arises from
having a limited or distorted understanding of who God truly is. Therefore, we
need the courage to love God with our whole being.
God must occupy the first
place in our lives; everything else must come after Him. Jesus Himself
demonstrated this by often withdrawing to the mountains to pray and commune
with the Father. What He practiced, He also taught His disciples. The lives of
the saints provide powerful examples of this truth.
The season of Lent
invites each of us to reflect deeply:
- Where do I place God in my life?
- How do I live the great commandment taught by
Jesus?
- Do I truly love God above all else?
- Do I love others as Jesus commands?
- What people, attachments, or situations
prevent me from loving God wholeheartedly?
To place God first in our
lives is one of the greatest challenges we face. Yet it is also the path to
true joy, peace, and eternal life.
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Saturday in III
Week of Lent
Mass Readings: Hos 6:1-6; Ps 51:1-2.
16-1. 18-19b; Lk 18:9-14
Key Verse to
Ponder:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector (Lk 18:10).
The First Reading
The first reading from the prophet Hosea touches upon a central theme of
Lent: conversion and returning to the Lord. The prophet invites the
people with these moving words: “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has
torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up” (Hos
6:1). God raises us from our sinfulness so that we may live in His presence.
The prophet also invites the Israelites to press on to know the Lord (v.
3). At the same time, God laments the faithlessness of Ephraim and Judah: “Your
love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early” (Hos 6:4).
This passage invites us to reflect on the depth and strength of our love
for the Lord and His commandments. Often we desire to know God, yet our love
for Him is not strong enough to endure difficulties. Sometimes our love for God
resembles the morning dew—beautiful but short-lived, disappearing
quickly.
What God truly desires from us is steadfast love and genuine knowledge
of Him: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of
God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos 6:6). Our prayers and sacrifices lose
their meaning if they do not come from a contrite heart and from a
sincere desire to know God. More than external offerings, God asks us to deepen
our relationship with Him. The more we truly know God, the more we will love
Him.
This Lenten season reminds us that conversion is not merely about
external practices but about a transformation of the heart. God calls us to
move from superficial devotion to a deep and faithful relationship with Him.
The sin of the Pharisee in today’s Gospel was precisely his spiritual
pride, which made him blind and led him into self-deception. Like the
people mentioned in the first reading, he did not truly seek to know God with
sincerity. Thus, this parable becomes a powerful lesson: God desires humility
rather than pride, and a living knowledge of Him rather than empty religious
practices.
The Gospel Reading
Today’s Gospel presents
the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Through this parable,
Jesus teaches that no one should consider himself righteous before God while
despising others. In reality, this is not simply a story about a Pharisee and a
tax collector; it is a story about you and me. It challenges us to
reflect on how we stand in the presence of God.
At the very beginning we
must ask ourselves: when we go to the church to pray, do we thank God for His
blessings, or do we secretly judge others with a Pharisaic attitude?
“Two men went up to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector” (Lk 18:10).
Prayer is not about
telling lies to God or presenting ourselves as better than others. Yet this was
the mentality of the Pharisee. Standing before the Lord, he proudly listed his
own good deeds:
“God, I thank you that I
am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”
In his prayer he belittled
the other person. But we do not come before God to recount our virtues and
highlight the faults of others. God already knows our hearts. Therefore,
instead of boasting, we must stand before Him with gratitude and humility,
trusting that He will fill us with His grace.
Very often our prayers
become centered on ourselves rather than on God. Instead of glorifying the
Father for who He is, we sometimes compare ourselves with others in a way that
favors us. It is precisely this attitude of pride and contempt that
Jesus reproaches in the Pharisee.
The Prayer of the Humble
The way we enter the
church and leave the church matters greatly. When we leave the place of
worship, we should return justified and forgiven, carrying with us the
peace and presence of God.
For this reason, the tax
collector becomes a model of prayer for us. He was so humble that he did
not even raise his eyes to heaven but stood before God with deep sorrow for his
sins. Those who bend low before God are the ones who are lifted up by Him.
One of the most powerful
prayers during the season of Lent is the prayer of the tax collector: “O
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Jesus was always
compassionate toward sinners. In many of His parables, He made them the
protagonists of His stories in order to reveal God’s mercy. The most authentic
prayer is the prayer spoken with humility.
No matter how holy we
think we are, the best attitude before God is always humility. When we
recognize our weakness and approach Jesus sincerely, we experience His mercy
and forgiveness.
Humility does not mean
feeling inferior or developing a guilt complex. Rather, it is a disposition
of love. It acknowledges that our human weakness attracts the merciful love
of God, because:
“Whoever humbles himself
will be exalted.”
The Lesson of the Parable
Today’s Gospel presents two people praying in the same temple to the same
God, yet with two very different results. One is accepted and justified, while
the other is rejected. Self-centered prayer that flows from pride is never
pleasing to God. Even worse is a prayer that despises one’s neighbour, because to
despise another person is indirectly to despise God Himself.
The Pharisee openly expressed his contempt for the tax collector. He
considered himself righteous and focused entirely on his own religious
achievements. His prayer contained no real reference to God’s mercy.
Justification, however, does not come from human merit. It is a gift of
God’s grace. The Pharisee forgot to humble himself and wait for God’s
mercy.
The tax collector, on the other hand, stood far away and prayed with deep
humility: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Lk 18:13). Because he
approached God with humility, he was justified and exalted, while the
proud Pharisee was not. Jesus concludes with these powerful words: “All who
exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be
exalted” (Lk 18:14).
Points for Personal Reflection
During this Lenten season
we are invited to examine our hearts:
- What kind of prayer do I offer to God each
day—a prayer of pride or a prayer of humility? (cf. Jas 4:6; Prov
3:34)
- Do I approach God like the Pharisee,
trusting in my own righteousness, or like the tax collector,
trusting in God’s mercy?
- When I pray, do I focus on God’s goodness or
on comparing myself with others?
- Do I truly thank God for His blessings, or do
I spend more time complaining and judging others?
Imagine the story in a
modern context:
two priests went to the church to pray…
two religious went to the chapel to pray…
a husband and wife went to the church to pray…
Lent invites us to stand
honestly before God and ask:
- How do I stand in the presence of God?
- Do I thank Him enough for His blessings?
- Is my humility a sign of my trust in His love?
- In my prayer, do I forgive others as God
forgives me?
May this Lenten season
teach us the beautiful prayer of the tax collector:
“O God, be merciful to
me, a sinner.”
And may that humble
prayer open our hearts to receive the healing mercy of God.
