Jn 4:43-54 Life and Death

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Click here for readings)

By KATIE GROSS

The royal official said to him,

“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

While the man was on his way back,

his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.

He asked them when he began to recover.

They told him,

“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”

The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,

“Your son will live,”

and he and his whole household came to believe.

Now this was the second sign Jesus did

when he came to Galilee from Judea.

​Most everyone knows the verse John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” We know, then, that God has saved us. The word ‘salvation,’ however, is used so frequently in the Church that we can become numb to it. We can take it for granted that God has saved us. In order to truly understand our salvation, we must realize the magnitude of our sin—then, we will come to know just how much of a gift it is to be saved. This is what today’s Mass readings can help us discover.

“Sir, come down before my child dies.” Throughout the Gospels, sin is often related to physical illness and death. This can be confusing at first.I remember the first time I ever heard the reading where Jesus commands the paralytic man to walk. All Jesus tells him is that his sins are forgiven, and then he walks? What does sin have to do with physical infirmity?While physical and spiritual infirmity may not be directly related, it often helps us to think of sin in physical terms in order to recognize its gravity.

Think: it is all too easy to forget the magnitude of our sin because sin is purely spiritual. We cannot see it or touch it, and because of this, we can begin to underestimate its destructive effects. It is much easier to see and understand physical infirmity. A person can cuss and be bitter all day long and not immediately recognize any harm. However, if a person were to get slapped for every sin he committed, he would certainly notice sin’s destructive effect through his physical nature. We must realize that we are a body and soul—just as our body can suffer harm, so can our soul suffer harm. This is how serious sin should be to us: we should realize that sin isthe “death of the soul" (CCC 403).

Furthermore, it is very difficult to admit that we are in need of salvation. Sure, one can say that he needs Jesus, but when you think of sin as spiritual death, that admittance becomes all the more serious. It would be like if someone approached you and said, “Hey, you’re wrecking your life. You don’t have any clue how to handle your business.” Now, if someone said that to me, I would probably lash out. But think! This is what it is to say we are sinners. To say I am a sinner is to admit that I do not know what is right for me—to admit that I am causing my own spiritual death. The truth is that we are all dying. We all need a Savior.

“I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.” Today’s Psalm says it all. The last verse says, “Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me; O LORD, be my helper. You changed my mourning into dancing; O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.” The Lord is our helper. He changes our mourning-- notice the allusion to death again-- into dancing.

The first reading also gives a beautiful image of our salvation in terms of life and death:

“No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,

or the sound of crying;

No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime…”

When our sin is reflected as physical death in the Bible, our salvation is reflected as a cure. We know what it is to physically be ill. We know what it is like to physically be cured. We must bring this analogy to the spiritual realm—not only will it help us recognize the magnitude of our sin, but the reality of our salvation.

​

Jn 3:14-21 For God So Loved The World

Fourth Sunday of Lent
(Click here for readings)

By FR. ALFONSE NAZZARO

Jesus said to Nicodemus:  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ...And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil."

God so loved the world.  What is there to love?  We fight, punch, pull, bite, kick and kill.  We yell, scream, shout and complain and blame everyone (except ourselves) for everything.  We are like children in the eyes of God.  And we treat God just like our kids treat us!

What is there to love about this world?  It's tough.  It's annoying.  It's constantly repeating!

So how does the Lord handle us?  Just like so many parents, He gets upset and angry with us, but remains unconditionally and hopelessly devoted to us! 

For God so loved the world!! 

There is no denying it.  Our world is upside down.  Things just don't make sense.  Take for example the Lord's parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee:

"Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.  I give to the Capital Campaign and have given up sweets for Lent."  Okay, I added these last two items to modernize this parable.  But I hope you see the point.

But to make matters more confusing, we have the tax collector who stood off at a distance and did not raise his eyes up to heaven but instead beat his chest and prayed, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner."

Isn't this upside down?  Isn't this twisted?  Isn't the one who is super religious (tithes and goes to Church frequently) the good guy, and the guy who extorts people the bad guy?  Well, not according to Christ:  "I tell you, the tax collector went home justified...for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."   

St. Paul's response to all this madness is more madness!  He tells us:  "Brothers and sisters:  God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ." 

How weird!  This is all weird!  God is weird and so are we, period - no, exclamation point!

If I were God, I would probably have condemned the world long ago.  Thank God God is not like me!  And thank God God is not like our society.

OU.  Once upon a time, the Church used to be considered the #1 institution that did all the condemning.  Now, I think that title goes to our society, although a lot of people would probably deny it.  That's society for you!

Case in point:  OU (Oklahoma University).  Apparently, a young man preferred to recite his fraternity's racist pledge every morning rather than recite his Church's Creed.   Young people tend to dismiss their faith as being irrelevant.  How unfortunate. 

We all know the old saying:  "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all."  What you may not know is that this saying is a secular spin-off to today's Responsorial Psalm:  "Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget You."  It's amazing the filthy and vulgar things that can come out of our mouth when we don't have God on our mind.

This young man learned a very tough lesson the Lord taught His disciples long ago: "For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light" (Lk 8:17). 

Remorseful or not remorseful, he (and maybe his family) will be branded a racist for the rest of his life.  The Scarlet Letter has been placed on his bosom, not by Puritans this time, but by secularists, and it will never be removed.  What exactly is today's "Scarlet Letter?"  What else but the hashtag. 

I've been told that nuns used to put the fear of God in their students by saying something like "If you commit a sin you'll go to hell!"  Well, that's nothing compared to the fear of doing something incredibly stupid and sinful and having it repeated a million times on YouTube for the whole world to see.  If this isn't hell, then what is?

I find it funny how Secularists & Co. have a hard time seeing any resemblance in their unholy actions to certain unholy religious practices. 

What happened at OU could have happened anywhere.  What happened to this young man could have happened to anyone.  Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

So what happens if I forget the Lord and open my mouth?  Is there any redemption in sight for me?  Yes, for Christ came into my life not to condemn me but to save me.  In other words, he came into my life not to euthanize me but to heal me.  How?  By humbling me.

Being humbled is not always a bad thing.  It can actually lead to great things, like remorse, compassion, empathy, mercy, forgiveness, redemption and, finally, exaltation: "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."   

College students say the darndest things.  Once upon a time, I dated a young lady who was a member of a sorority.  At that time I was already working and just getting back into my faith.  So, when I asked her what she thought about God, I was amazed at her answer:  "My sorority is my god."  Oh my Gosh!

That was the end of our conversation and the last time I ever spoke to her.  Apparently, she had more faith in the "sisters" than in The Sisters.  Looking back, I'm so grateful for her frankness, it brought me much closer to the Light.  ...Come to think of it, it seems like I've always gotten closer to God by speaking to those who were very distant from God.  How weird. 

Cinderella.  A few days ago, I went to see Disney's Cinderella.  It was absolutely beautiful.  What a timeless and true story.  True story???  Of course!  Just change the names and get rid of the imagined magic, and you have the real magical story of every person who is meek and humble of heart.  Or, as Disney would put it: "Kind and courageous."   

What are the two lessons from Cinderella?  (1) Blessed are the meek and humble of heart, and, once again, (2) "Whoever exalts themselves will be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves will be exalted."

Isn't this the goal of Lent?  To be more like Cinderella, I mean Christ?  How, you ask?  By self-denial.  By denying ourselves and learning how to make a sacrifice, which is the key performance indicator of true LOVE.  So, if my Lenten resolutions are pointing towards me and not Him, then I need to scratch them off my "To Do" list and start all over.    

Lent better be for all the right reasons, otherwise we'll end up exalting ourselves rather than exalting in the Lord. 

Luke 18:9-14 Just Say It: I Confess...

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

(Click here for readings)

 

By GABY HUNDZA

 

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

“Don’t judge someone just because they sin differently than you.” - I hear this phrase a lot, and it definitely ties in well with this reading. Why is it okay for the Pharisee to act as if he is above the other people? To answer this simply: it’s not. As humans we are all inclined to sin, so we should never condemn others for what they have done. When others criticize us for our wrong acts, we are ashamed to confess our sins.

We should never be ashamed to confess our sins, because Christ took them to the cross with him. Instead of being ashamed, embrace your sins and have humility. We all sin, but it is important to accept we have done or failed to do and hand it over to the Lord. Do not let your troubled soul cause anxiety; be humble and be free. Give everything to the Lord - your praise and your sorrows, your strengths and your struggles. Never be afraid to admit your mistakes, because, just as the Jesus says in the parable, those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Just as we should not be ashamed our sins, we should not cause others’ grief by judging them for what they have done. If we desire to be accepted for our mistakes, we should be willing to forgive others and accept their flaws as well. The Pharisee justifies that he is superior to the other people by declaring his good deeds and revealing the wrongdoings of others. Instead of focusing on the good in ourselves and the bad in others, we must acknowledge our own bad in order to grow in our faith. Remember to be humble in all circumstances - no sinner is greater than another. Focus on yourself instead of worrying about others; be humble to be exalted.

Jeremiah 7:23-28 The Black Thing

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

(Click here for readings)

 

By SOPHIE DRUFFNER

But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.

They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts

and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.

From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.

Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed;

they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.

When you speak all these words to them,

they will not listen to you either;

when you call to them, they will not answer you.

In the story A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit tell Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace that the huge darkness descending on the world, continually punctured and held back by a force of light, is The Black Thing. But, they tell the children, great artists, presidents, and people such as Ghandi and Jesus drove back the darkness; hence, the puncturing light. The darkness is the evil in the world; the light is the good.

It seems that many times a year someone tells me that the world is getting worse. The carbon emissions are increasing, more people are dying, nuclear weapons are growing ever more, and on and on.

It seems that the older people get the more they are weighed down by the world. It gets easier to worry about money, taxes, wars, holocausts, etc., and it seems that it gets harder to smile.

We are here to make a difference; we are here to make a change in the world for better. We are supposed to make the world a better place and so many of us do, through our work, through our conversations, through our prayers, through even the kids that bring so much happiness into the world.

It’s amazing how much a baby can make others happy through his or her smile. There’s something about that big toothless grin that makes strangers make funny faces at the baby, strangers who might look at you funny if you smiled at them.

Whenever you’re “weighed down by the world,” think about the smile of a baby. Think about how when you were a teen you drove with the windows down and the music blasting, the wind going through the windows and everything absolutely perfect. Think about the feeling you had when you got into your dream college, when you danced around the room, the world an amazing place. Think about your first date, or the day you got engaged, or any moment of pure happiness. Think about how much better you can make the world through smiling at one extra person. Think about your happiness--it’s much harder to do something wrong when you’re ecstatic; it’s much easier to do good when you’re so happy. Through your smile, you create light, you drive out the Black Thing, you imitate Christ.

Yes, the world might seem to be getting worse every single day, but the wars, holocausts, and things have been happening since the beginning of time. Do what you can to make the world a better place, and influence people to do good, and remember to be happy, for happiness creates the most good in the world. Drive back the darkness, and do not be afraid.

Mk 12:28-34 Sacrifice: A means to a proper end

Friday of the Third Week of Lent
(Click here for readings)

By FR. ALFONSE NAZZARO

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"  Jesus replied: "The first is this:  Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! ...The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."  The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. ...He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart...and your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

As we pass through the third week of Lent, we are reminded over and over again that LOVE - love of God and love of neighbor - is our ultimate goal. 

But how exactly do we get there?  

You are not far from the kingdom of heaven.  Not too long ago, I went ice skating.  There were people of every age and every proficiency level.  I saw some old people gracefully and confidently whiz by me.  I saw others hold on to the railing for dear life! I wasn't one of them, by the way.

Anyways...those who knew how to skate made it look sooo easy.  I wasn't easily fooled.  I knew I needed to get some instruction.

In many ways, today's Gospel passage makes Christianity (and Judaism) sound so easy.  After all, if you want to be a saint, then all you have to do is love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.  That's it!  That's all!  In fact, from today's scripture passage, it even sounds like sacrifices aren't worth much anymore, at least in the eyes of God.

Is this the case?

Hardly.

Sacrifices no longer accepted?  Sacrifice goes hand-in-hand with love.  How do we know when someone loves us?  By the way they sacrifice for us.  It's that simple.  It's not just the sweet words you say to me that make me want to love you, or the good heart you have, or even the good intentions that you possess, but the way you sacrifice for me.  The way you kill yourself for me!  As Christ put it, "No one takes my life from me.  I lay it down freely" (Jn 10:18). 

And it's this kind of sacrifice that inspires me to do the same for you.

Every time I look at a crucifix I see sacrifice and love nailed together.  Christ and the Cross go together like love and sacrifice.  The two were meant for each other and become one...until "death do us part."  

During Lent, millions of Christians give up something or some things for Lent.  So what exactly are they doing?  Well, if their heart is in the right place, then they are making a sacrifice for the Lord.  Why would anyone ever do that?  Are these sacrifices worth anything anymore?   Of course they are!  But only if these sacrifices have love of God and neighbor in mind.

If I want to love God and my neighbor, then I have to, without exception, learn how to sacrifice my will - my desires and my cravings - for the Lord and put it into service for Him.

Burnt offerings and sacrifices are worth very little if the Lord and LOVE are not the goal or fruit of my labor.  Similarly, keeping the commandments are worth very little if my heart is not in the right place.  We know this by observation.  Think about it.  The Pharisees and scribes knew the Bible inside and out and were meticulous in observing all the laws.  But when it came time to recognize God standing in their midst, they failed miserably.  Why?  Because they didn't know real love -  God's LOVE - the kind of love that gives and forgives. 

Now to be able to give and forgive requires tremendous grace and sweat and tears (personal sacrifice), something the Pharisees and scribes had a hard time doing, especially if they were always "walking around in long robes, enjoying praises and greetings in the market places, and getting offered the best seats in the house or at banquets" (Mk 12:39).

In today's Gospel passage, the Lord had no intention of belittling or eliminating personal sacrifice.  He was simply returning this highly effective tool to its proper place:  as a means, not an end.   

DT 4:1, 5-9 Words Better Left Unwritten

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

(Click here for readings)

By BENEDICT AUGUSTINE

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

In Plato's dialogue Phaedrus, Socrates shares some interesting thoughts about written language, an innovation during his time. Despite his love of his wisdom, he does not see too much good to come out of writing. In his view, writing would inevitably lead to the loss of memory and add little to language--except to help old men like himself to remember certain things. Otherwise, people should continue speaking their thoughts and leave writing to record keepers.

The oral tradition of the ancient world, both in Greece and Israel, had such vitality that few people ever thought of writing down important texts except in the form of transcripts. It took centuries for poets and philosophers to use written text as the primary means of communicating their ideas. Even the greatest of them thought like Socrates and wrote things that people already spoke, treating the written word as something ultimately secondary. There were no "writers"; there were only speakers who made use of writing from time to time.

Only in the middle of the first millennium AD, when the Roman persecution of Christians started to die down did Christian scholars make heavy use of reading and writing. For this reason, they finally formalized the biblical canon, created an adequate translation, and composed commentaries on scripture and philosophy. Before these developments, people wrote with urgency and had oration in mind, which came in the form of letters, plays, poems, and sermons.

For this reason, anyone trying to read an ancient work today will find it dense, dry, and highly repetitive. The epics of Homer, especially the Iliad, with its endless litanies and epithets will quickly frustrate a person reading the text silently to himself. Similarly, the Old Testament, with its genealogies and its many commandments--and its many praises of these commandments (see Psalm 119)--will lull a modern reader into indifference and confusion. What one has to remember, and what God explicitly commands through Moses is that these words must be expressed orally. God wanted a Church through which to proclaim His Word, not a library in which to store it.

Oral tradition created a buffer between the information of a text and the person receiving this information: someone had to interpret and 'perform' the text. As such, ancient literature had a much more musical quality because it followed the same process as music: a composer would write the music; a musician would perform the music; and an audience would hear the music, not read it. In this arrangement, musicians must internalize and interpret the music not only to communicate information, but also render it intelligible to the mind and heart. Similarly, a speaker taking up the transcription of Leviticus would not simply rattle off the commandments he sees on the page, but would comment and elaborate them for the audience. Imperfect and imprecise as this method might seem, it certainly gave life to the words that people saw fit to pass on to younger generations.

In more literate times, many people have always wondered why Jesus never wrote anything, why He never created a definitive text for people to memorize and follow strictly, like the Book of Mormon or the Quran. Jesus, after all, knew how to write, but He chose to use His voice and insists that His disciples do the same. This is because Jesus also knew that communicating something as ineffable and sublime as God in human language is impossible and often detrimental. The Living Word writing dead words would immediately contradict Himself in the very act. Disciples should communicate their Lord with their minds, their hearts, their bodies, not with a book that a person will shelve along with so many others.

Written traditions, ones in which the text supersedes the individual, die or suffer corruption quickly. Oral traditions, ones in which individual supersede the text, have a chance of living and growing. In the former, people become slaves to a book, slaves to a particular time and expression, slaves to a narrow way of thinking, slaves to something ultimately lifeless. Despite having an infinitely greater nature, a human soul will conform to questionable symbols on a page: his mind, heart, and soul will, in a sense, squeeze into this ossified compartment incompatible with humanity--and this is what Paul means when criticizing "slaves to the Law."

In the latter, an oral tradition, people will quickly free themselves from the text and rejuvenate it with their own personality: the mind, heart, and soul are engaged in reviving the text as they revive the soul. In Christ, one finds freedom, because Christ makes the law human; in doing this, the law, now a person, humanizes, and does not de-humanize as a written list to memorize and recite would do. With this understanding, the Catholic Mass does not function--as many Protestant services function--as a mere lecture over pious subjects. Instead, it is a play in which everyone performs their role and performs the words of scripture. After Mass, Catholics do not only study holy scripture, as people of other religions do, but live it out through action and verbal transmission.

Instead of writing, Christ spoke. Instead of reading, His disciples listened.
Books can help this process for literate communities, but they must not replace the living words that happen between believers. This holy conversation must continue, out loud, until the end of time.

Jn 2:13-25 In and Out

Third Sunday of Lent
(Click here for readings)

By FR ALFONSE NAZZARO

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep and doves, as well as the money changers seated there.  He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area. ...He said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."

As soon as I finished meditating on the first reading, taken from the Book Of Exodus, and the Gospel passage, taken from the Gospel of John, I couldn't help but think of...In and Out Burger! 

Well, not so much the "Burger" part, but more like the "In and Out" aspect.  

Lent is all about "In and Out."  In with the good; out with the bad.

Driving In our Lord.  This is good.  The Commandments are good for all of us, especially for teenagers.  We all need rules.  We all need boundaries.  Otherwise, the one thing we cherish more than anything else - our freedom - will be lost. 

Freedom without responsibility is a disaster!!  I have said this so many times in my life.  Now if I would only live by it!

Most adults have come to the brutal conclusion that freedom can quickly come and go; that is, choices made can easily become addictions never intended.  I find it shocking just how quickly the Promised Land of Freedom can become the Land (Egypt) of Slavery. 

Don't you remember:  by the time we are eighteen we couldn't wait to be FREE...free from our parents; free from all those age restrictions; and of course, free from the Church and all her medieval rules! 

Free at last!  Thank God Almighty we are FREE at last. 

But Freedom without responsibility leads to tears and regrets. 

The Ten Commandments were never intended to restrict our freedom.  On the contrary, they were intended to protect our freedom!  Of course this makes no sense to someone who has a confused or distorted idea of freedom. 

So what exactly does it mean to you to be free?  Does it mean you have the right to do whatever you want?  Good or bad?  Right or wrong?  Holy or unholy? 

Or does it mean something else?

I think freedom means to never be forced to offend my neighbor or my God!  Freedom means to have the choice - the liberty - to do what is right, good and holy. 

In with the Good.  Now out with the bad!

Driving out our demons.  In today's Gospel passage, the Lord reminds us - maybe even warns us - that if we don't drive out the demons from our lives and institutions, then they will drive out God from our lives and institutions. 

Will the temple of God be converted into a marketplace or will it remain a temple?  That is the question!  And the answer depends on who is more courageous and determined to win!

Hence, out with the bad!  Let's drive out our demons before they drive us insane!

This past Saturday, I was watching Forensic Files and I was stunned to learn about the life of a woman named Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919-1995).  She was the founder of American Atheists and is considered the number one person responsible for eliminating prayer in public schools. 

To those who interviewed her, Madalyn appeared as a fouled mouth angry and bitter woman.  She disowned her very own son, William, after he embraced Christianity.  Wow!  So much for imagining tolerance, compassion, understanding and even forgiveness in a world without religion. 

It appears as though she had a difficult time with male relationships.  She married John Henry Roths in 1941.  While in the military and overseas, Madalyn had an affair with a married Catholic man, William J. Murray.  Some people think that William Murray refused to divorce his wife because he was Roman Catholic.  I doubt it, since he had an affair with Madalyn in the first place!  It sounds to me like he used his Catholicism as an excuse not to marry someone he didn't really love!   Regardless, Madalyn changed her last name and took Murray's last name.  

Finally, around 1954, she, along with her two boys, tried to defect to the Soviet Union - because of there promotion of state atheism - but was denied entry. 

But it wasn't her ideas that got her on Forensic Files.  It was how her life came to an end:  tragically.  In 1995 she was kidnapped, murdered and mutilated, along with her son Jon and granddaughter Robin by a convicted felon out on parole, David Roland Waters.  Waters was a member of the American Atheists and worked for the organization from 1993-1994.  He was apparently angry with Madalyn because she fired him and wrote an article about him, accusing him of being a homosexual. 

What a tragedy!

But the reason why I even mention Madalyn in this post is because she fought tooth and nail to have prayer removed from public schools, and won.  I won't even get into the debate about prayer in public schools.  I'm not sure I would disagree with her, especially if kids were being either forced to pray or punished for not praying. 

The point is this:  there are some people who are actively trying to drive God out from the public square.  In driving out the money exchangers, the Lord was simply reclaiming what was rightfully His and gradually being lost:  His Home, a place for Him to dwell. 

As for Lent, am I driving God out of my life ,as if he were some sort of demon?