They will not listen

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.

Say to them:
This is the nation that does not listen
to the voice of the LORD, its God,
or take correction.

Faithfulness has disappeared;
the word itself is banished from their speech.

Thus says the Lord in today’s first reading (Jeremiah 7:23-28).

It doesn’t take a prophet or a theologian to recognize how well these words apply to our world today.

We all know the frustration of trying to share our faith with someone (especially one or more of our children) who “does not listen”.

We have also all witnessed the wreckage left behind when people have jettisoned faithfulness in favor of “what feels right”.

Of course, as we hear in today’s Gospel (Luke 11:14-23), people refused to listen even to our Lord himself and even spread the most horrific lies about him.

What do we do? We stay close to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as he reminds us in the latter part of today’s Gospel.

He is the ultimate strong man, the undefeatable one.

Also, in a world that seems to be spinning apart, our Lord offers us the stability of eternal truth and infinite power.

Whoever does not gather with me, scatters.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.