181 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year And you, could you possibly not love Him alone as the wisest and most merciful Lord? Could you possibly not serve Him faithfully, sincerely, and persistently? THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT Before Holy Communion 1. “Now [H]e was casting out a demon” (Lk 11:14). Consider that the Church proposed for your reflection this Gospel today so that, having recognized the act of kindness and omnipotence of the Lord in freeing one possessed by the evil spirit, you may ask humbly to be freed from all impediments to your eternal salvation and be protected from the crafty tricks of the evil spirits, both by a similar act of kindness and by the help of the same Lord. Beseech Christ to remove from you all that is not in accord with and that does not adorn the religious spirit and state, knowing it to be of the evil one, namely, perverse inclinations and vicious actions. When the Lord enters the abode of your heart, ask Him to purify it the same way as the house of Zacchaeus; may He perform in you what He once did in Zacchaeus. Indeed, being brought to repentance by the Lord’s arrival, Zacchaeus distributed among the poor whatever wealth he had illicitly accumulated, liberally giving them even half of his goods (cf. Lk 19:8). Similarly, at the coming to you of this Lord of lords, you should leave behind and ignore those things that belong to the world and the flesh; and hereafter you shall run the path of the Lord’s commandments because your heart will be expanded by this Holy Communion (cf. Ps 119:32). 2. “that was mute” (Lk 11:14). That man possessed by the devil, (as the Venerable Bede teaches) was said not only to be mute, but also blind.67 The Lord 67 Cf. Beda Venerabilis [Bede the Venerable], In Lucæ Evangelium Expositio — Liber IV (Luke XI, 14), in: PL, vol. 92, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1862, p. 475.
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