First Passiontide
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 lampstand, 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
March 24, 2019
Luke 11: 14 – 35
In older cultures, each house had a small shrine. This was the place where the image of the god lived and was honored. It was the center of the home culture.
What was once done outwardly has now moved inward. We each have a center – the deep shrine of the heart. It is there that Christ dwells in us. But who else lives with us in the home of the body? Are our soul and body a noisy gathering place for other spirits? Do we remember to worship at the shrine of the heart?
The gospel reading tells of a person occupied by a spirit of deafness and muteness. Christ encourages us to listen at the shrine of the heart: ‘Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there.’ Luke 11:28
We, together with Christ in our deepest selves, can strengthen and expand our own sovereign occupation of our souls and bodies. Gathered in inner composure with Him who is Love, we can fully occupy our own body and soul. Thus we leave no room for spirits of division and darkness, for demons of hatred, doubt and fear. Composed with Him who stands at peace with the world, we can radiate Christ-light within, from the center, from our Christ-core in the shrine of the heart. For as the poet Thomas Centolella reminds us:
On a gray day, when the sun
has been abducted, and it’s chill
end-of-the-world weather,
I must be the sun.
I must be the one
to encourage ….
to remind [myself] …..
I must issue forth a warmth
without discrimination, [or]and any guarantee
it will come back to me.
On a dark day I must be willing
to keep my disposition light, ….
I have to be the sun,
I have to shine as if
sorry life itself depended on it.
I have to make all the difference.*
And we do this by finding and amplifying the Christ-Light in us.
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