He has revealed himself - 12-03-2026

Published on March 11, 2026

Thursday of the Third week of Lent

Readings Responsorial Psalm Gospel YOUCAT Reflection

 

First Reading

Jer 7,23-28.

Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people:
Listen to my voice; then I will be your God
and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you,
so that you may prosper.
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.
Say to them: This is the nation which 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.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 95(94),1-2.6-7.8-9.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”  

 

Gospel

Luke 11,14-23.

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute,
and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul,
the prince of demons, he drives out demons."
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
"Every kingdom divided against itself
will be laid waste and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.
Whoever is not with me is against me,
and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

 

YOUCAT Reflection

 7 Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?

Man can know by reason that God exists, but not what God is really like. Yet because God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself.

God did not have to reveal himself to us. But he did it—out of love. Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God's inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love. From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets down to the definitive revelation in his Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to mankind. In him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being visible for us.

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