Reflection for October 11 Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 11:15-26

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:

What motivates us to accuse falsely or to destroy the good reputation of our fellowmen? It’s greed, anger, envy and other negative and hedious emotions. These emotions are so dangerous that it could even lead us to kill. All of these are devious instruments of Satan. All of these are used by Satan to capture us. 

How could we refuse these enticements of Satan? We must be prayerful, we must always do good. We must at all times be focused on our mission to spread the teachings of Jesus through our words and actions. 

By doing good, Jesus was accused as being with Satan, what a reckless and baseless accusation from the crowd! Is Jesus siding with the demon or the crowd siding with the demon? Of course it was the crowd who was siding with the demon. The demon will never do good it will always seek to create chaos, intrigues and manufacture baseless accusations. 

Come to think of it, by accusing Jesus the crowd allowed themselves to be used by the demon himself. In like manner we also allow ourselves to be an instrument of the demon when we purposely accuse people even without a grain of truth. 

The demon or devil is a clear and present danger to all of us. It’s always by our side looking for the right timing to capture us. However, if we are close to Jesus and we practice and live the teachings of Jesus. We have nothing to worry because the devil can do nothing to us. 

Do you always create time to get closer to Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas