Reflection for September 1, Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 4:31-37

Gospel: Luke 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “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, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

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Reflection:

During 1982, while walking to our house. I saw a group of people and I also heard a very loud groaning voice within their group. Out of curiosity I walked going to them to simply see what they were looking at and to find out where that groaning was coming from.

There I saw a man with devilish eyes being held on by a number of men, when the man was asked who was he answered with a frightening voice that he was the devil. Afterwards somebody came (I don’t know if it was priest of a pastor) who said a very powerful prayer and afterwards he sprinkled holy water upon the possessed man while invoking the name of Jesus. As this was being administered the man was violently resisting and shouting until he calmed down and he passed out soon after.

In our gospel we read about Jesus exorcising a demon from a possessed man. After Jesus exorcised the possessed man the crowd said, what is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out (Luke 4:36).”

The crowd did not know Jesus that’s why they marvelled about the power and authority of His word. Unlike the crowd in the gospel who did not know, we know Jesus; we know where His power and authority is coming from. Let us therefore take advantage of our knowledge of Jesus. Let us dive deeper into it by regularly reflecting upon His powerful words in the bible, by our prayerful life and by our regular presence at Holy Mass.

By doing these acts of faith we permanently immunize ourselves from the possession of the devil. The devil who tries to possess us in manifold ways up to this very moment.  The devil is very real! 

He is just hovering around the moment we sense that the devil is near us through the many kinds of temptations and sins. We have to immediately invoke the mighty and powerful name of Jesus and walk away immediately! Otherwise it would possess us. - Marino J. Dasmarinas