THURSDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT READINGS AND COMMENTARY:
HE WHO IS NOT WITH ME IS AGAINST ME”
(Lk 11:14–23).
Thursday in the 3rd week of Lent
Mass readings
READING I
Jer 7:23–28
Thus says the Lord: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.
But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, for I am gracious and merciful.
GOSPEL
Lk 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.”
Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, St. Matthew (with permission)
- 14-23 Jesus’ enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the miracle.
- Since they cannot deny that he has done something quite extraordinary, they attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than admit that Jesus is the Messiah.
- Our Lord answers them with a clinching argument: the fact that he expels demons is proof that he has brought the Kingdom of God.
- The Second Vatican Council reminds us of this truth: “The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised over the ages in the Scriptures … The miracles of Jesus also demonstrate that the Kingdom has already come on earth: ‘If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you’ (Lk 11:20; cf. Mt 12:28). But principally the Kingdom is revealed in the person of Christ himself, Son of God and Son of man, who came ‘to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mk 10:45)” (Vatican II, Lumen gentium, 5).
- The strong man well-armed is the devil (v. 21), who has enslaved man; but Jesus Christ, one stronger than he, has come and has conquered him and is despoiling him. St Paul will say that Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them” (Col 2:15).
- After the victory of Christ, the “stronger one”, the words of v.23 are addressed to mankind at large; even if people do not want to recognize it, Jesus Christ has conquered and from now on no one can adopt an attitude of neutrality towards him: he who is not with him is against him.
- 18 Christ’s argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can overtake the Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among believers.
- We must make our own prayer, Jesus’, “That they may be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Jn 17:21).
COMMENTARY FROM THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
As in Jeremiah’s time, unbelief and infidelity were the attitude of Jesus’ contemporaries. Jesus’ example, his word, his miracles are palpable manifestations of His divinity. But the hearts of those men were hardened and they considered him an ally of the devil. What wickedness and what a great mystery! And we? Saint Gregory the Great says:
- “We turned our backs on the face of the One whose words we despise, whose precepts we violate; but even being at our back He calls us again, who is despised and cries out through his precepts and waits for us with patience” (Hom. the Gospels 16).
May we be always united to Christ for in Him we find our salvation. Let’s pray with Saint Gregory of Nazianzus:
- “Stay with us, because darkness surrounds us in the soul and only You, O Christ, are the Light. You can calm our anxiety that consumes us” (Letter 212).
Let us pray intensely. Let us do penance in this time of preparation for Easter, so that we may be renewed in Christ Jesus. Saint Ambrose comments:
- “Every kingdom divided will be desolate. The reason for this statement is to show that his kingdom is indivisible and perpetual, since he was accused of casting out demons in the name of Beelzebú, prince of demons … Those, then, who do not put their hope in Christ, and believe that demons are cast out in the name of the prince of demons, they deny being subjects of an eternal kingdom “(Commentary on Saint Luke VII, 91).
Stay safe and God bless! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo
VIDEO COMMENTARY ON TODAY’S GOSPEL.
TOPIC: ARE YOU A STUBBORN, HARD-HEADED, AND INFLEXIBLE PERSON?
In today’s readings, we see the workings of stubbornness. In the first, God gave His commands to His people but they have turned their back against Him. In their intransigence, they ignored prophets sent by God.In the gospel, people are awestruck at Jesus’ miracle of driving out a demon from a mute man and enabling him to speak. People were unconvinced even after Jesus performed His miracle. Their logic was inconceivable. They attributed His work to the devil. How could Satan undo his own work of making the man mute? A divided house will surely collapse.
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