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Gospel: Luke 4: 24-30
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.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I’m heading on a silent retreat this week.
One image I’m taking with me is that of an old car radio. You may remember when radios were built with a dial. You had to turn the knob to the left or right in order to find the right station. One click too far created static, muffling the music.
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To me, that’s what Lent is all about – making adjustments, fine tuning, searching for the voice of the Lord.
Now that we’re several weeks into this holy season, perhaps it’s time to consider whether or not we need to make some adjustments.
Maybe we need to dial down time spent on social media in order to turn up time spent in prayer.
Maybe we need to decrease our portion size at meals in order to increase our awareness of the poor, especially those without food in Ukraine.
Or maybe the Lord is inviting us to grow in patience, generosity, or some other virtue.
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Are there any adjustments I might need to make?
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Just as we’d expect to hear a musician’s voice if we turned on the radio, so we should expect to hear the Lord speak this Lent.
It may just be a matter of making the right adjustments – of tuning out, and tuning in.
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Image credits: (1) St. Agnes Church, Springfield, IL (2) iStock (3) Empowering Christian Women