Homily: Third Thursday of Lent
Third Thursday of Lent (Luke 11:14-23) “Invite the Spirit in”
The ancients saw mental and spiritual health differently than we do. We look at mental and spiritual health and we concentrate on what people carry within themselves. We probe into a person’s deepest thoughts and their past to help try and find a remedy for their difficulties. We have voices within ourselves that can be quite critical and pessimistic. If we listen too much to those voices, we will have little peace in our lives.
The ancients felt like a person’s mental health was determined by spiritual forces that came from the outside. Good spirits were roaming the world. Evil spirits were roaming the world.
In order to find peace, the evil spirits had to be pushed out. The good spirits had to be invited in. So, there was a battle going on. The question was what spirit was going to take procession of a person. All this sounds strange to us as modern people.
But when we think about it, we might say that modern psychology and the spirituality of the ancients might be saying the same thing. We have competing forces vying for our attention. Which spiritual message are we going to listen to.
Fulton Sheen has a good way of speaking of all this. He says that we need to commit our time to positive messages and to doing spiritual things like having a regular prayer time or interacting with people in our church community. If we commit to doing more of those things, we crowd other activities out of our life that are less than helpful.
We only have so much time in our life. A jar of dirty water might represent our consciousness. If we pour clean water into a jar that has the top open gradually the polluted water will be diluted as it pours out the top of the jar until the only thing left in the jar is pure clean water. Lent is a good time to engage in holier pursuits. Then we have less time for all the negativity around us.
Reflection Questions:
1. What activities in my life seem to be a waste of time? What things lead me into negativity?
2. What are the activities that lead me in a positive direction? Can I do more of these in Lent.
Dear Parishioners,
Bishop Tylka will be coming to be with us on Saturday as we bless our new gathering space. It is not every day that we have our Bishop with us so it would be nice to have a lot of parishioners to celebrate this special event. The Mass of thanksgiving begins at 4 p.m.
I would like to thank all those that helped during Fr. Gaspeny’s presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was impressed by the spirit here at Sacred Heart. Hopefully, his words helped us to appreciate the Eucharist more.
May our Lady of Peace pray for our war-torn world.
Fr Mark