The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the action we are being called to take to refocus our attention on the mission of Love and away from self serving distractions.
With or against the Spirit
The reading from the Prophet Jeremiah despairs that the Israelites walked in their own counsels.
* [7:22] I gave them no command: right conduct rather than formal ritual was God’s will concerning his people (v. 23).1
Psalm 95 is a call to Worship and Obedience.
* [Psalm 95] Twice the Psalm calls the people to praise and worship God (Ps 95:1–2, 6), the king of all creatures (Ps 95:3–5) and shepherd of the flock (Ps 95:7a, 7b). The last strophe warns the people to be more faithful than were their ancestors in the journey to the promised land (Ps 95:7c–11). This invitation to praise God regularly opens the Church’s official prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus declares the divide with the evil of Beelzebul.
* [11:19] Your own people: the Greek reads “your sons.” Other Jewish exorcists (see Acts 19:13–20), who recognize that the power of God is active in the exorcism, would themselves convict the accusers of Jesus. See also note on Mt 12:27.3
Beth Samson comments that the verse from the first reading really stands out to her: “They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” In those moments of feeling lost or distant, it can feel easier just to stay in the hardness of our heart, in our own stubbornness, then surrender to the Love of God.
Oh, to be human! But, when I do turn my face to God, when I do let down some of the walls around my heart, do you know what I find? Relief. Peace. Embrace. Love. God wants to be in relationship with us, wants us to accept God’s Love for us, wants us to respond to that Love in love. Lent is a time of invitation, a time to make choices, sacrifices, and ultimately surrender to the Love of God, to choose to turn our face to God. By refocusing our attention, by changing our habits, by fasting from excess, and giving more generously to our communities, we are tuning back into God’s love for us and what that means for how we live our lives.4
Don Schwager quotes “God's help for our complete conversion,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"When we transform our old life and give our spirit a new image, we find it very hard and tiring to turn back from the darkness of earthly passions to the serene calm of the divine light. We must ask God to help us that a complete conversion may be brought about in us." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 6,5)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 7:23-28 comments that the essential message is “Listen to my voice” (Jeremiah 7:23). For the people of Jeremiah’s time, that meant following the commands in the first five books of Scripture and listening to God’s word spoken through the prophets. It meant studying God’s words intently so that they became written on their hearts and thus became second nature to them.
God is always speaking: through prayer and the thoughts that come to mind as you pray; through Scripture and sacred music; through the words of other people; even through your memories, imagination, and emotions. God can also speak through billboards or catalogs, wind in the trees or waves on the shore, a roaring fire or a gentle whisper. And, as with the Israelites, he wants us to listen, to pay attention to his voice all throughout the day. You may not always hear correctly, but you can expect that he will speak to you. Over time, you will learn to recognize it.6
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the mission of Jeremiah and reason for his persecution by the people. Beelzebul, the Lord of the Flies, is connected to Baal of Zebul. Friar Jude notes the different context in Mark’s Gospel than in Luke and Matthew about those with Jesus and those against Him.
Rebecca Trotter, a mom, author, thinker, talker, teacher, Christian and odd duck writes about the Holy Spirit, gathering and scattering, and the related texts in Luke, Matthew, and Mark.
So, it is in this context that Jesus says, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.” What he is saying is that anyone who is not with him – recognizing the hand of God and the work of the Holy Spirit when they see it – is against him. Anyone who sees the work of the Holy Spirit and instead of celebrating it, rejects it is against Jesus. Labeling someone as against us due to differences in doctrine, religion and ideology is foolish in the extreme...The Spirit moves as it will. It will not be contained by human minds, beliefs and expectations. Failing to recognize the Spirit when it is at work ought to be considered far more dangerous than the possibility that those we associate with may not be pure or righteous enough.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Theresa Torres’ description of receiving her faith through her grandmother is a wonderful reflection of how faith was once passed down generation to generation. Her grandmother, or abuelita, inspires spirituality not as a religious creedal statement or morality code, but as a healing and transformational way of life.
She was the ground—the foundation and the presence of spirituality for me and for our entire family. . . . I was twelve at the time of her death, and she died after a short illness. Because she was so strong for most of my life, I could not envision she could be so ill or even could die. I was in denial, and while my mother tried to prepare me and console me, it was abuelita herself who showed me that her goodbye was not an end. In her death, she came to me and said her goodbye through the shared memories of our many experiences, and I felt her love and spirit go through me. She knew that her dying would be hard, but her presence was not gone—we are united in the grounding of the great spirit of Good. She also showed me the unity among those who have gone before us. Her presence and wisdom continue in my life—she has returned in dreams at important points in my life, and she continues to bless me. It is in living and even in dying that we are united in the Spirit of Great Good, so long as we love and we listen deep within. In the grounding of our lives, in the silence, we come to KNOW the wisdom and the transformative Good that exist in us and around us and in the lives of the abuelitas who have gone before us.8
Our attention to the prompting of the Spirit as we live, work and pray will draw us to complete our conversion as disciples of Christ.
References
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