Friday, January 05, 2018

Reflection for January 9, Tuesday of the First Week; Mark 1:21-28

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28
Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
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Reflection:
There’s a story of a man who was trying very hard to straighten his life. He would often say to himself that he would not womanize anymore. But he would always fall down and succumb to the enticement of the devil. This became a vicious cycle for him: He would promise to himself not to hurt his wife only to fall once again.

Evil possession is a reality of life it is always there hovering around waiting for the right moment to pounce on us. Evil possession is also not solely limited through diabolical possession. It now hides itself through our ego or high sense of self and through our other undesirable motives, thoughts and actions.

Very clearly we have in the gospel the one who can defeat the devil and it’s no other than Jesus. By His authority Jesus drove out the evil spirit possessing the man. And it is also surprising that the evil spirit knew who Jesus was.  This simply means that Jesus was marked as their number one enemy for He alone can defeat them permanently.

Jesus is still the same today as He was yesterday and as He shall be in the future. The evil spirit still trembles before His presence; He is our sole antidote to Satan’s evil scheming. Let us therefore hear His voice crying out for us and let us not harden our hearts for Him. Instead let us open our hearts to Him.

Do you hear the voice of Jesus and would you open your heart to Him? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

2 comments:

Alice said...

Thank you for your good and easy to understand the refmection is.. God bkess you po!🙏

Marino J. Dasmarinas said...

My pleasure and God bless you too.