Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to proceed through this time and season of Lent, and as we all continue to walk through this time of reconciliation and reconnection with God, we are all reminded through the passages of the Sacred Scriptures that we should always keep ourselves open-minded and willing to listen to the Lord speaking to us and calling on all of us to follow His path and to adhere to His teachings and ways. During this time and season of Lent, we are reminded that we should not harden our hearts and minds, and instead of allowing our ego and pride to keep us away from listening to Him and believing in Him, we should learn to be more humble and come to put ourselves in the loving presence of God, allowing Him to heal us from our afflictions, particularly those of our sins.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, we heard of the words of the Lord to His people, the people living in the southern kingdom of Judah during the final years and decades of its existence as an independent kingdom, and as we heard it, we can see how the people of Judah had been disobedient against God just as their ancestors and predecessors had been, in refusing to obey the Law and the commandments of God, in shutting their hearts and minds stubbornly against God and against all the prophets and messengers who had been sent to them to remind, guide and help them to walk faithfully and righteously in the path that God has set before them. Yet, they instead persecuted those prophets and murdered them.

That was why, understandably God was furious and unhappy at the behaviours shown by those stubborn and ungrateful people, whom God has always cared for and loved despite their lack of faith and obedience to Him, and He told them all therefore through the prophet Jeremiah of all of their misdeeds and wrongdoings, a nation of stubborn and hardened hearted people that had not appreciated everything which God had lovingly done for them. In the end, they would all suffer the consequences of their actions, and they had to be accountable for their misdeeds and misbehaviours, for God Who is always loving towards His beloved people is also a just God Who does not want any injustice to remain before Him, as what the people of Judah had done.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which the contention between the Lord and those who doubted and opposed Him came to an argument between them particularly because the latter accused Him of having performed His miracles, signs and wonders through the powers and workings of the demon prince Beelzebul. This Beelzebul according to tradition was one of the mighty prince of demons that was one of the chief lieutenants of Hell, a powerful adversary of the Lord and His people, and therefore those accusations were really serious ones, as they not only tried to undermine the Lord’s credibility but even accusing Him of blasphemy and wicked deeds by colluding with the demons.

That was when the Lord then immediately pointed out the folly in their argument and false accusation, highlighting how it would be foolish and unimaginable for the devil and the other evil ones to be divided against each other in their efforts to bring about ruin and destruction for the people of God. Yes, indeed, they might have quarrelled and disagreed with each other as were probably their nature, but regardless of their different methods and works, those forces of evil and wickedness were always united in their purpose to bring about our damnation and destruction. As the Lord Himself mentioned, no countries or states would have survived and remained standing or strong if they were divided amongst themselves.

Hence, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Beelzebul would have helped the Lord to perform those miracles and works against the other forces of evil. And the Lord Jesus highlighted and proclaimed clearly that He has done all of His works and signs, miracles and wonders by the power of God made manifest through Him against all those who falsely accused Him of collusion with the forces of evil. It was likely that those people who opposed the Lord consisted of the Pharisees and their supporters, who were still quite adamant in their opposition against Him despite all the evidence pointing out otherwise, that the Lord Jesus was indeed the Messiah or Saviour that God has promised His people through all of His prophets.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all those opposition and hardened hearts, all came about because of the pride and ego of mankind, all the insecurities and fears that we all have in us, which led us all to resist God’s works and efforts to reach out to us as the people of Judah and the opponents of the Lord like the Pharisees had shown. We must instead be examples of those who put their trust and faith in God, and we should do our best at all times so that we may be good examples and inspirations for everyone around us, leading more and more people back towards the Lord. It is through us and our actions that the Lord can truly be glorified, and by our many contributions, even the smallest ones, we can do so many great and wonderful things.

May God be with us always and may He bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always, especially throughout this time and season of Lent, so that our Lenten observances and practices may truly be fruitful, and be centred appropriately on Him and not on our own selfish desires, ambitions or on any desire to be recognised and praised for our faith. Amen.