Fully Alive
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent Jer 7:23–28 · Ps 95 · Lk 11:14–23
We live in an age of endless analysis.
We doubt. We critique. We deconstruct. We talk past each other. We scroll instead of listen.
Everyone has an opinion. Few are willing to obey.
Obedience sounds dangerous. It sounds like losing freedom. Rebellion feels heroic.
But rebellion is not the same as freedom.
Israel wanted freedom from Egypt. Yet when God led them, they resisted Him.
They had seen miracles. Still they refused trust.
Jeremiah preached. They would not listen.
Jesus heals a mute man — a man finally able to speak freely.
And some respond: “There must be a hidden agenda.”
Even liberation is suspicious.
We are not so different.
When someone speaks truth, we ask: What do they want from me?
When God speaks, we ask: What is the catch?
The real sickness is not lack of intelligence. It is refusal to listen.
Psalm 95 says: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Notice: hearing comes before obeying.
But we rarely listen long enough to obey.
We want autonomy. We want control. We want to decide for ourselves what is good and evil.
And yet — paradoxically — those who listen and obey God are the freest people in the world.
Obedience to God is not slavery. It is alignment with reality.
God’s commands are not traps. They are formation.
St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a person fully alive.”
He echoes Jesus’ promise: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Have you ever met someone fully alive?
Not anxious. Not cynical. Not constantly defending themselves.
Fully alive.
That is Jesus. And then all those who chose to follow Him.
They are not perfect. But they are free.
Jesus drove out demons not by the power of Beelzebul, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The same Spirit that anointed Him makes hearts alive.
A person fully alive does not “lie flat.” A person fully alive does not live only to work and accumulate.
A person fully alive lives with hope and meaning. Looks toward a new heaven and a new earth. And knows, deep within, that in the end all shall be well.
Do you want to be such a person?
Then begin here:
Listen. Trust. Follow.
Let Him soften what has grown hard.
Let Him lead you into the fullness of life.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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