Monday of the Third Week of Lent - March 21, 2022
It’s
sad when our faulty expectations of life and of God cripple our relationships
with both. That’s what’s happening in
today’s Scriptures. In the Gospel earlier this same day the people had been
quite impressed with Jesus’ preaching, only to later become so disillusioned
with him that they chased him out of town and wanted to throw him off a cliff.
The
reason for their quick change in attitude was that Jesus didn’t turn out to be
what they expected he would be, or should be. They wanted him to work miracles
for them, heal their illnesses, protect them from all hardships, stimulate
their economy, and such good things. So when they realized that wasn’t why he
came, they thought, ‘He’s no good to us; let’s just dump him.’
But
before we become too judgmental, we might ask ourselves how much we might have
in common with them. We have certain expectations of our lives, of our marriage
and our family, of our success, of our parish and church. We continue to be
stressed out by this pandemic and all the upheaval it has caused us.
And
sometimes when our life’s desires aren’t met, we blame God and walk away from
God and all God has to teach us. We become disheartened, negative, cynical,
angry and self-absorbed. We pray less and rarely go to Mass. We throw out our
sense of joy, of hope, of peace, of compassion.
When that happens, we have more in common with those Nazareans than we
might think.
Lent
invites us to examine and adjust those false expectations we harbor and bring
them more into line with Jesus’ life, his eachings, and especially with his
loving self-sacrifice for us. And we do that so that we won’t end up like
Jesus’ fellow citizens. So we’re not tempted to jettison our relationship with
God, but instead try harder to become Christ’s disciples, following him through
the ups and downs of his life so that we will stay connected with him through the
ups and downs of our life.
Q: When have I ever wanted to jettison Jesus out of my life? How will I, this Lent, try harder to become a disciple of Jesus, following him through the ups and downs of life?
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