Monday of the Third Week of Lent
March 4, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030424.cfm

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Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

Luke 4: 24-26

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In our Gospel today, Jesus is not accepted among his neighbors. That lack of acceptance impels Jesus to move his mission out to the wider community.

“Acceptance” can be seen as a passive word suggesting that we just put up with something we cannot change.

On the other hand, it can be a positive condition in our spirituality by which we prepare ourselves to hospitably receive that which we had not expected. Such positive acceptance suggests a non-judgmental, wise, and discerning heart. The folks in today’s Gospel lacked such hearts.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

How open are we to grace when it comes to us in new and unexpected ways – new attitudes, new relationships, new awarenesses and responsibilities?

Do we let ourselves be surprised by God? Or are we pretty sure we have God down pat?

Do we seek new and deeper understandings of God’s Word in our lives by widening our circle of experience and understanding? Or is our “faith” a closed and limited system such as the one displayed by the synagogue listeners toward Jesus?

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Poetry: Y’Did Nefesh

Yedid Nefesh (‘beloved of the soul’) is the title of a 16th-century Jewish liturgical poem. It is usually sung on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest and celebration that begins on Friday before sunset and ends on the following evening after nightfall.

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Beloved of the soul, Compassionate Father, 
draw Your servant to Your will. 
Then Your servant will hurry like a hart 
to bow before Your majesty. 
To me Your friendship will be sweeter 
than the dripping of the honeycomb.

Majestic, beautiful, radiance of the universe, 
my soul is heart-sick for your love. 
Please O God, heal her now 
by showing her the pleasantness of Your radiance. 
Then she will be strengthened and healed 
and eternal gladness will be hers.

All worthy One — may Your mercy be aroused 
and please take pity on Your beloved, 
because it is so very long that I have yearned intensely 
to see the splendor of Your strength, 
only these my heart desired, 
so please take pity and do not conceal Yourself.

Please be revealed and spread upon me, my Beloved, 
the shelter of Your peace 
that we may rejoice and be glad with You. 
Hasten, Beloved, for the time has come, 
and show us grace as in days of old.

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Music: Y’Did Nefesh