40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, 24 March 2022 Jeremiah 7:23-28 <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 11:14-23
Bless us, dear God our Father this Lent which happens to be the campaign period for our coming elections in May, a day of deliverance towards true freedom and democracy, most of all, political maturity if we choose rightly.
But, I have long felt so saddened at how this election campaign has been going on, pushing aside the beautiful and rich and meaningful lessons of Lent: we have not only forgotten that we are in a 40-day journey in you and to you with Jesus Christ but we have forgotten to listen to your voice.
This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
Jeremiah 7:28
Awake us, O Lord, before we perish and lost again: many among us in the Church have taken side with candidates pretending to take side with truth and with you; many among us have drag your holy name in the pulpit, trying to be modern prophets when our lives are not prophetic at all, when we have forgotten to tend the sick and poor among your flock, when we smell more like politicians we rub elbows so often than smell like your sheep; worst of all, O God, is how we hurl harsh words, spewing them like an erupting volcano when deep within us are all the dirt and sins we have refused to face and clean amid our many double standards.
How easy, indeed, for us to find the devil, the power of Beelzebul present in our society specially in politics without seeing more and presenting more your Son, Jesus Christ to everyone that too often, we scatter than unite; teach us to speak and act more to unite your people than divide them. Amen.
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