Homily: March 24, 2022, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

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 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.”

Jesus’ message is so clear. We cannot follow Jesus partially. If we are not following him whole heartedly, we are not his followers.

Today is the 20th day of Lent, not counting Sundays. We are halfway through. Do you remember what you decided you will do specially for these 40 days of Lent? Are you keeping up to it?

While we are trying hard to grow stronger spiritually, the devils are working harder to keep us down. I wonder who is in the lead at this halfway mark?

In my childhood years, only rich children in my village could afford to own bikes. When I was in the 5th grade, my older brother and I decided to collect wild nutmeg flowers from the nearby forest to sell, so that we can afford to buy a bike. 

We would wake up very early in the morning and run to the forest to search and collect as many as possible. Many children from other villages were doing the same so whoever got there first would get most of the flowers. 

We walked miles within the woods, moving from one tree to another. I don’t remember being so hardworking in my studies though.

We would keep them till the market price was high, then sell. But the flowers we collected were still not enough to make the cost of a bike. So, what did we do? We cleverly added a few stones to the bundles of nutmeg flowers to make it heavier. At last, we made enough money and bought our dream bike.

The desire of owning a bike was not wrong. Working hard to collect nutmeg flowers to sell was not wrong. But to add stones to make the weight was obviously cheating, and it was wrong. Yet we felt justified because the purpose was not bad and the cheating did not harm anyone. We made more money and they made less, that’s not too bad right?

Wrong. Till today, I feel shame when I recall the incident. For that incident, the devils scored a win while I failed the Lord. I did not choose the way of Jesus, I was not with Him. My thoughts and my deeds were against Him.

As I grew older, travelled further and understood the world more, I realised the reality of life is not as simple as my nutmeg scheme. Right and wrong can be very confusing. It is easier for Jesus to drive out the demon in the mute man, than to drive out the stubbornness in the prideful person.

But Jesus made it clear, there are only two options: choose Him or not. There is no middle ground, no neutral position. If we do not choose and follow Jesus whole-heartedly, we are choosing to be against Him.

In the first reading, the Lord commanded, “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.”

We still have half the way till Easter, let us try harder than the devils. Let us pray harder for God’s grace to lead us ahead in our spiritual growth. Let us end this Lent with a celebration of victory at Easter, with Jesus. Amen.


Comments

  1. TL26 March 2022 at 00:49

    Thank you for the reminder Fr. Nivin. I am behind in my Lenten resolutions, will pick up and not let the bad guys win. Will do it for Jesus and for my spiritual growth!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa Schwarte26 March 2022 at 15:09

    Good reminder to keep up the good fight! So often our choices at the time seem justifiable. Although, if we listen hard enough, there is always the voice of our soul prompting us that something isn't right. We must be vigilant every day. Great message.

    ReplyDelete

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