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Friday, Third Week of Lent B (March 12 /2021)
Your Daily Blessing: May God's Mercy find you any day you are in trouble. Amen.
Read Hosea 14:2-10; Mark 12:28-34; pray Psalm 80[81].
Someone in whom others see only evil and wickedness, may be seen as an angel by someone else. Yes, the same ‘wicked’ person has a very beautiful side. Why is that?
Part of the answer is what this reflection is about. Its role is to help us see what often we may not be able to see clearly on our own.
The devil has done a lot of harm in deceiving a lot of people to the point they actually believe what is an ‘obvious deception’ to the trained eyes.
Sometimes, the circumstances of our life changes our perception so much so we no longer see evil for what they are. What is ‘evil’ or ‘wrong’ become ‘good’ and ‘right’ in our eyes, because we are under the devil’s spell.
Just as the “devil turns himself into an angel of light,” he can deceive us to see ‘good’ in our evil actions. His real goal is to ensure our disloyalty to God and his will for us.
Anyone under the devil’s spell may reach a point he cannot help him/herself but needs outside help. Prayerful supplication on his/her behalf is the remedy until God shows him/her mercy.
He says in the first reading: “I will heal their disloyalty, I will love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned from them. I will fall like dew on Israel…all your fruitfulness comes from me.” Sometimes, God’s justice requires he leaves us under the devil’s spell. Pray it is not permanent!
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Continue from yesterday, the final part of St. Chrysologus homily on three things we must do (prayer, fasting, mercy): ‘“To make these acceptable, mercy must be added. Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered by mercy. Fasting dries up when mercy dries up. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to earth.
However much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soil of your nature, root out vices, sow virtues, if you do not release the springs of mercy, your fasting will bear no fruit. When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn.
Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.” May the Holy Spirit teach you how this applies to you!
PRAYER: Dear Lord, I am a mystery to myself. Help me to understand that anytime I do that which displeases you is a step forward into the devil’s trap. Save me from his snare! Amen
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