BENDING OUR HEARTS TO JESUS

Meditation for Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

(Jer 7:23-28; Lk 11:14-23)

The prophet Jeremiah laments the stubbornness of heart of the people. Despite persistent appeals and warnings, they refused to obey the voice of the Lord. Worse still, they added iniquity after iniquity, and increased in their evil ways. These are the people who liked to do things in their own ways as against the ways of the Lord, and who would not accept discipline.

 

In this meditation, we already see another importance of discipline as proposed by this season of Lent. It helps to ‘soften the heart’, so that we will not be stiff-necked people, who act only according to their feelings and from their comfort zones. If we bury our hearts in self-indulgence, it shall become deaf to the word of God, and we may end up growing in evil. The resistance of a stubborn hearted person against the truth of the word of God is like the opposition Jesus faced in the gospel.

After witnessing to great works of Jesus in setting a demoniac free, some of the people who refused to believe accused Him of casting out demons by Beelzebul. Some others, to justify their stubbornness of heart, asked Him to give a sign from heaven. Jesus explained to them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Anyone living a life of self-contradiction will end in self-destruction! To deny what one knows to be true is self-contradiction, and a violation of conscience. To avoid this, and for us to grow in virtue, we impose certain disciplines on ourselves this Lent. This is our humble way of bending our hearts to Jesus, who is the Truth and the Life. He says, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.

Thursday March 16^th, 2023.

www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

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