Today's readings from Jeremiah and Psalm 95 challenge us not to "harden our hearts" and be like many throughout history who have "turned their backs" on the message of the prophets. These are apt texts for Lent, which provides time to reflect on the challenges we regularly hear about living with a true commitment to love and to justice. While we may not harden hearts or turn backs on those challenges, we may ignore them or put them off for another day. Instead, we are invited to enter God's presence with thanksgiving and joy, as the Psalmist says, while we reflect on our own failings and work for an ever-deeper relationship with God.

Today's readings from Jeremiah and Psalm 95 challenge us not to "harden our hearts" and be like many throughout history who have "turned their backs" on the message of the prophets. These are apt texts for Lent, which provides time to reflect on the challenges we regularly hear about living with a true commitment to love and to justice. While we may not harden hearts or turn backs on those challenges, we may ignore them or put them off for another day. Instead, we are invited to enter God's presence with thanksgiving and joy, as the Psalmist says, while we reflect on our own failings and work for an ever-deeper relationship with God.

The reading from the Gospel of Luke tells of a case of hardened hearts. It reports an event when Jesus conducted an exorcism and was subjected to a challenge by critics who called him an agent of Satan. We may well have rationalized explanations of what Jesus was doing. However we understand how exorcisms might have worked, Jesus responded with sympathy and compassion to a disturbed individual who was rejected as a tool of the devil by the conventional wisdom of the time.

The Lukan story complements the texts from Jeremiah and the Psalms. It reminds us that having an unhardened heart will not simply be a matter of listening to homilies with greater attention and a commitment to avoid sin. An unhardened heart will respond to God's call to love and serve in unlikely places and people. The story also reminds us that responding to human need can at times be controversial, something especially true in this time of deep partisan division. The final lines of the passage offer a challenge by Jesus to follow him even in the face of controversy. May we too then not harden our hearts or turn our backs on those in need and may we enter with joy into the presence of God found in unlikely places and people.