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Thursday of the
Fourth Week of Lent • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Gospel: Luke 11:14-23
📖 The Gospel - Luke 11:14-23
Jesus drives out a demon,
and the crowd immediately splits, some are amazed, others accuse Him of working
by the power of Beelzebul. And Jesus cuts through the confusion with a line as
sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, every kingdom divided against itself will be
ruined. And then the line that leaves no middle ground: whoever is not with me
is against me.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
There is no neutral
territory in today's Gospel. Jesus is absolutely clear about that. He doesn't
offer a comfortable middle position where you can appreciate His teachings
without really committing, or admire His example without following it, or
respect His Mother without praying through her. Whoever is not with me is
against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Jeremiah had been watching Israel try to live
in that neutral territory for years. God says through him, I gave them this
command: listen to my voice. They did not listen. They walked in the hardness
of their hearts. And generation after generation repeated the same pattern, a
people who knew the right thing and chose otherwise, slowly, habitually, almost
without noticing.
That is the subtle danger Jesus is naming
today. Not dramatic apostasy or public rejection. Just the slow drift of a
heart that never quite fully committed, that was always holding something back,
always hedging its bets, always keeping one foot in God’s kingdom and one foot
in the world. And Jesus says, that is not neutrality. That is division. And a
house divided against itself cannot stand.
Lent is the season to close that gap. To stop
hedging. To choose, clearly, deliberately, with full awareness of what it costs,
to be with Him. Not just admiring Him from a comfortable distance. Be with Jesus
at the Jordan. On your knees at the cross. In the prayer group on a weeknight
when you'd rather be home. Be with Jesus as much as you can.
💭 Reflection Question
Where in your life
have you been living in the comfortable middle lukewarm zone of faith, not
fully against God but not fully with Him either? What is the one area where
Jesus is asking you to stop dividing the house and commit completely?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Death of Jesus on
the Cross
At Calvary, there was
no middle ground. The crowd, the soldiers, the two thieves, everyone had to
choose. The good thief chose to be with Him. That choice, made in agony, during
our Lord’s last hour, with nothing to offer, was enough. As you pray these
beads today, make that same choice with your whole heart. I am with You Lord.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Our Lady's message at
Fatima was itself a call to choose sides, to recognize that a spiritual battle was
raging and that souls were being lost because good people were drifting rather
than deciding. Our Lady of Fatima did not come to describe the neutral zone.
She came to call people out of it. Her request for the consecration of Russia,
for the Five First Saturdays devotion, for daily Rosary, these are not
suggestions for the spiritually comfortable. They are equipment for people who
know they are in a battle and have chosen their side. Today, choose your side
clearly. Choose to be with Jesus.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, I choose
You today. Not the life that keeps me away from you, and being lukewarm with my
love for you, not the hedged bet, not the admiration from a safe distance. I
want to be with You all the way. No matter what that costs and no matter where
that leads me. I am with You Lord always. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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