First Passiontide
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| Rembrandt |
Luke 11: 14-35
Jesus was driving out a demon from a man who was
mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute
spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, “He drives out
demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.” Others sought to test him by asking
for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any
kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against
house. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And you
claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now if I were to drive out demons
by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers do it? Therefore, they shall be your
judges.
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, it
follows that the kingdom of God has already come to you.
When a strong man in full armor guards his palace,
his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him,
the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted, and divides it up
as spoils.
He who does not unite with my being is against me;
and he who does not gather in inner composure with me [work for inner composure with me] scatters.
When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it wanders
through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it
says, ‘I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.” When it returns
to this dwelling it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven
other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that man. And
his final state is worse than the first.”
As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised
her voice and said, “Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you.”
But he said, “Truly blessed are those who hear the
divine word in their hearts and tend it there.”
And as the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak.
“The men of this generation are strangers to their true being. They look for
signs and outer proofs of the spirit, but none other will be given to them but
the sign of Jonah. For just as once Jonah shared the experience of the spirit
with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of
the spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in
the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present
generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.
The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days
of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will
pronounce judgment over them. For they changed their ways after the
proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.
No one lights a light and then puts it in a hidden
place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lamp stand, so that all may
see the light shining.
The light of your body is your eye. When your eye
looks at the world clearly and impartially, the processes of your whole body
will be inwardly filled with light. If however the eye’s desire sees the world
separated from the spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.
Protect yourself that the light does not become
darkness in you.
If your body is now filled with light, so that it
no longer takes part in darkness, everything will be completely illuminated, so
that, with lightning brightness, the light irradiates you completely from
within.
1st Passiontide
Luke 11: 14-35
As is well-known, every coin has two sides. And there is
very little in the middle. A sphere, however, has an infinity of sides and a
maximum depth.
There is one side of our human nature that longs for wild
enthusiasm, that longs to escape ourselves in ecstasy. And another side that
sneers in critical derision, tying us down in unbelief. These are the two sides
of the coin of our nature.
Christ, however, encourages us to expand our depth. He
encourages us to develop more flexibility in our thinking, more than our natural
default settings of either/or, black or white.
In the reading, He uses ordinary logic and common sense to
refute those who would put him on either side of the good/bad coin. He widens
the scope of thinking. And his parables of the strong man guarding his palace,
and of the one who removes evil spirits from his house, are a warning to us. He
encourages us to remain in the middle, to be present in the ‘house’ of our own
being, our own bodies. We are to use our capacity of thought to neither escape
ourselves nor to be bound in hopelessness. We are to become like spheres,
expanding our points of view, developing thoughtful depth. From this place in
the center of our humanity, we can connect with Christ. He is the Light of the
World in the depths. And then, in uniting with Him, our whole being can ignite.
We will become a globe of light in the worlds we occupy.
In the words of John O’Donohue:
May the light of your soul bless
the work
You do with the secret love and
warmth of your heart.
May the sacredness of your work
bring light and renewal
to those who work with you….[1]
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