Half-hearted
(some weeks, C.S. Lewis busts me over and over again – this is one of those weeks)
Today’s Gospel is vaguely familiar. And odd. At least to us.
Jesus reads “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” passage from Isaiah. Then says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The reaction of the people Jesus is saying this to? They are excited.
Because they get it. They know exactly what’s Jesus is talking about.
Our reaction? Not much of anything.
We don’t really think about it. So we move on to the next thing.
The next distraction. The petty busyness of life. Absent-mindedly scrolling from one thing to another, then another.
Whatever.
Which, if we actually stop to think about what Jesus is saying, is absolutely mind-boggling.
That we who are offered so much would ignore it for the sake of so little. C.S. Lewis explains,
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.
We are far too easily pleased.”
Today’s Readings
