Daily Reflection for Thursday March 11, 2021
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners,
We encourage you to reflect on Thursday’s readings at this link:
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent | USCCB
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-28
Responsorial: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Gospel: Luke 11:14-23
Our reflection on Thursday’s readings:
Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction… Jeremiah 7:28
The readings for today prompted me to admit to myself that I have been struggling with obedience of late.
I am embroiled in a situation at work that seems to invite both obedience and disobedience. It revolves around a COVID era policy I must heed in order to keep my employment and at the same time one I feel I must reject in order to assuage the distress it provokes in me given my opinion of its moral turpitude. Intuition and experience offer the suspicion that I am blinded by the moral and ethical certainty of my stance and yet the blind spots and minimal discussion with those who don’t align with my position offer me comfort and familiarity. Like the first reading, my certainty blinds me to the openness of seeking let alone hearing correction. Like the Psalm, this certainty risks inviting bitterness and hardening of the heart with anything less than alignment with my way of thinking.
Certitude, tangled emotions, and fragile pride all present conditions perfect for erosion of our humility. Without humility, our dependence on others and our dependence on God easily gets camouflaged and replaced by our illusion of strength and self-reliance.
Our society tends to covet and reward strength much more than weakness. We pride ourselves on it and, as suggested in the Magnificat entry for today, what is the result when our strength and our convictions barricade our hearts from basking in our total dependence on God? Like the Gospel passage from today, only the strength of God’s redeeming love is strong enough to penetrate hardened hearts. Only His love is strong enough to penetrate barriers we erect and divisions we sow with our myopic thinking, selfish actions, and self-serving behavior.
But when one stronger than he (the strong man) attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied … Luke 11:22
What areas of your heart need attention and the softening love of God today?
Rafael Rosario