A Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent

+ The dispute occasioned by Our Lord’s casting out of a demon that related in this morning’s Holy Gospel sees Him described as nothing less than an agent of Beelzebul—of the devil himself! Our Lord, however, responds calmly and clearly, as we sang in the antiphon for Terce: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
 
The “if” here is more than ironic. The miracles worked by Our Lord were and are more than enough evidence that “the finger of God”—i.e. God the Holy Spirit—was at work through Him. Hence, His assertation that “the kingdom of God has come upon you” stands, then and now, which is why Our Holy Mother the Church proclaims this reality to us on this third Sunday of Lent.
 
Let us consider the implications of this. Through the Sacred Liturgy this morning Our Lord points out to each of us that the kingdom of God has come upon us; that the definitive reign of God on earth has arrived; that all that mankind can hope for is here—in His very own person.
 
We can understand why such an assertation occasioned a dispute amongst the Jews: its claims are enormous—exclusive even. Who is Jesus of Nazareth, even if he works wonders and casts out demons, to assert that He is the Christ of God, “the door” by which, “if anyone enters…he will be saved”? (Jn 10:9)
 
As ever, this is the crucial question around which everything turns. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Who is this man claiming to work by the finger of God? Is He the very presence of the Kingdom of God on earth, the definitive revelation of God in human history? Or is he simply a wonder-working prophet or philosopher whose insights can be taken or left as we please?
 
Everything depends on the answer to this question. For our response to it either sees us stand firm on the rock that is Christ in the sure knowledge of the Truth He reveals about God, mankind and salvation, or we are left to fend for ourselves in the quicksand of relativism and subjectivism that rapaciously devours souls and indeed our very world today, turning morality into mere passing expediency and eviscerating right and good social order with any and every positivist whim of passing political preferences.
 
In our own times there are even those who call themselves Catholics but who maintain that Jesus Christ is not the definitive revelation of the Kingdom of God and who hold that God’s Kingdom can equally and ordinarily be accessed by various other means. ‘All religions are valid paths to God,’ we are told. A diversity of religions ‘is willed by God’ some assert—contrary to two millennia of Christian doctrine. This pernicious heresy is just that: a distortion of the Truth revealed by God for our Salvation, the truth that all salvation comes through Jesus Christ no matter how, in His mercy, Almighty God may ultimately bring people unto Him. As Our Lord says perfectly clearly to each of us this morning: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Standing firm on the rock that is Christ is our duty, for therein all people can find salvation.  
 
Very wisely does our Holy Mother, the Church, recall this reality to us in this holy season Lent. For it is a season in which we must strip away the distractions of other times and, with God’s grace, reconstruct ourselves from the basic foundations. And there is nothing more basic than our response to the question: “Who is Jesus Christ?”
 
St Paul is perfectly clear—as ever!—in this morning’s Epistle in respect of the practical implications of our response to this question. His words resound down the centuries with a clarity that speaks to us as much as it has throughout the ages: “Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).”
 
We must re-learn this Truth this Lent. Let our prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us more purely to live it and to witness to it before others, so that we may be found worthy of the Kingdom of God and that more may come to share in the life it offers.
 
As we approach the altar, let us beg the grace always to stand firm on the rock that is Christ so that one day we may rejoice to be included amongst those of whom Our Lord speaks at the end of this morning’s Holy Gospel: “Blessed … are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” +