Gospel: Luke
11:15-26
When Jesus had driven out a
demon, some of the crowd 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.
“When an unclean spirit goes
out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding
none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon
returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings
back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and
the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”
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Reflection:
There was
an advertisement on TV that has a catchy line that goes like this: Our products
are everywhere. Could we also say this to the devil, that he and his minions
are everywhere today? Yes, the sad reality is the devil and his minions are
prevalent today more than ever. They are everywhere literally disguised in so
many attractive ways that we could not identify who they are and where they
reside.
We may
not know this but some of these evils reside within us, this is the reason why
from time to time evil thoughts suddenly pops in our minds. Should we worry
about this? Of course, for the reason that this shows our lack of faith and
interactions with Jesus.
Evil
thrives within us when Jesus is absent within us, when we shabbily treat Him
and when our faith in Jesus is weak. Therefore when we have weak faith we also
give the devil an opportunity to cast his evil magic spell upon us.
Our
gospel for this Friday tells us that Jesus is far more powerful than the devil,
that Jesus could demolish the devil anytime He wants. But Jesus needs also our
cooperation because He also gave us the freewill to decide for ourselves. If we
are going to embrace Him and let Him come into our lives or we continue to
allow the devil to gain control of our lives. Do you allow the devil to once in a while take control of you?
Be wary
of the devil, defeat him with your rock solid faith in Jesus. - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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