20191011
OVERCOMING
THE WILES OF SATAN
11 OCTOBER,
2019, Friday, 27th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Joel 1:13-15,2:1-2 ©
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Priests, put on sackcloth and lament.
Ministers of the altar, wail.
Come, pass the night in sackcloth,
you ministers of my God.
For the house of our God has been deprived
of oblation and libation.
Order a fast,
proclaim a solemn assembly;
elders, call together
all the inhabitants of the country
to the house of the Lord your God.
Cry out to the Lord,
‘Oh, what a day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
it comes as a devastation from Shaddai.’
Sound the trumpet in Zion,
give the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the country
tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming,
yes, it is near.
Day of darkness and gloom,
day of cloud and blackness.
Like the dawn there spreads across the
mountains
a vast and mighty host,
such as has never been before,
such as will never be again
to the remotest ages.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
9A(9):2-3,6,16,8-9 ©
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The Lord will judge the
world with justice.
I will praise you, Lord, with all my
heart;
I will recount all your
wonders.
I will rejoice in you and be glad,
and sing psalms to your name,
O Most High.
The Lord will judge the
world with justice.
You have checked the nations, destroyed
the wicked;
you have wiped out their name
for ever and ever.
The nations have fallen in the pit which
they made,
their feet caught in the snare
they laid.
The Lord will judge the
world with justice.
But the Lord sits enthroned for ever.
He has set up his throne for
judgement;
he will judge the world with justice,
he will judge the peoples with
his truth.
The Lord will judge the
world with justice.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my
voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn12:31-32
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Now the prince of this world is to be
overthrown,
says the Lord.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I shall draw all men to myself.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 11:15-26 ©
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When Jesus had cast out a devil, some of
the people said, ‘It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts
out devils.’ Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing
what they were thinking, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself
is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses. So too
with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? –
since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils. Now if it
is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts
cast them out? Let them be your judges then. But if it is through the finger of
God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken
you. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are
undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the
stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.
‘He
who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.
‘When
an unclean spirit goes out of a man it wanders through waterless country
looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it says, “I will go back to
the home I came from.” But on arrival, finding it swept and tidied, it then
goes off and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in
and set up house there, so that the man ends up by being worse than he was
before.’
OVERCOMING THE
WILES OF SATAN
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JOEL 1:13-15; 2:1-2; LUKE 11:15-26]
In the first reading, we have Prophet
Joel calling the people to repentance in view of the Day of Judgment which was
imminent. The talk about the Day of Judgment is inevitable
because we cannot avoid speaking of the eternal justice of God and the
frightening consequences of sin. Only in the light of evil and judgment,
can we be awakened and be inspired to fight against evil! Of course, this
should not be motivated by fear primarily, yet there’s nothing wrong in
considering the two options for eternal life: Heaven or Hell.
Yes, many people in the world today
believe that there is no hell and they assume that no sin committed could
warrant Hell or that God is so merciful He would never send anyone to
Hell. Then there are those who presuppose that they will live long enough
to make amends for their sins.
Whilst it is true that we must believe in
the Good News of the infinite mercy of God, this cannot also
contradict in any way the eternal justice of God – as the psalm asserts, “The
Lord will judge the world with justice!”
So what are the causes of sin in
us and in the world today? In other words, what are the obstacles to the
fuller coming of God’s Kingdom into our world? Classical spirituality
explains sin as due to three causes, “the world, the flesh and the
devil.” “The world” stands for external cultural attitudes militating
against living for God and others, such as secularism, individualism,
materialism. “The flesh” stands for internal personal dividedness inhibiting
our free response to the Spirit, such as the capital sins of pride, envy,
anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust. And “the devil” is Satan who seeks
to tempt us into sin and evil. So we have indeed a formidable triad to
content with in our struggle against sins!
However, today’s Gospel just wants
us to focus on the third member of the triad, Satan. Jesus and His
culture acknowledge the existence of preternatural forces – the devil – that
work mightily against God’s Kingdom. Nevertheless, Jesus’ power as God’s
Messiah is not limited or threatened by the power of Satan. Whatever
current debates go on in our post-modern age concerning the existence or
non-existence of demons, the Gospels assure us that the Devil is real on one
hand; and on the other hand, the power of Jesus is always superior to the power
of Satan.
So in our fight against sin, we must recognize
and affirm the existence of the devil and his activities. As the
author of the First letter of Peter exhorts us, “Our adversary, the devil
prowls the earth seeking the ruin of souls (1 Pt 5:8-9).” In the gospel, we read of
Jesus’ confrontation with Satan. Jesus Himself encountered personal
opposition and battle with Satan when He was put to the test in the wilderness
just before His public ministry.
In our fight against the
Devil, we must recognize that we will surely face opposition either directly from Satan if he were
exposed, or indirectly when he works through the weaknesses of men.
Indeed, those of us who try to expose the Devil and his deceit very often have
to face opposition and all kinds of slander. This is not surprising, for
in the gospel today, we read of Jesus performing many exorcisms, freeing many
who were troubled and oppressed. He, too, battled with Satan. But people
reacted to His healings maliciously by accusing Him of exorcising in the power
of Satan, Beelzebul.
Hence, a clear sign that the Devil
is working in our midst is when we see a growing discord and division in
community life. Jesus warns us of the danger that when a kingdom
is divided against itself, it cannot survive for long. Satan’s strategy
is to divide us from within so that he can destroy us. That is why we
must be alert for Satan can lend his power to us unwittingly.
How do we deal with the
Devil? How can we
defeat him? For us Christians, the Good News is that Jesus is the
strong man whom we can rely on. What comfort to know that the presence of
Christ in us is stronger than any power of evil that may assail us, whether
from “the world, the flesh or the devil.” This is indeed good news!
Jesus affirmed His authority over the
Devil by claiming that His power and authority to release us from
Satan’s power is through the finger, that is, the power of God. God’s power
is clearly at work in the exorcisms which Jesus performed and they give
evidence that God’s kingdom has come. Indeed, His power and authority to cast
out demons is a clear demonstration of the reign of God.
Yes, we have been saved from domination by
evil through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We too must
exercise our freedom from sin through our union with Christ. Only in
union with Him, can we be assured of His protection from spiritual harm.
“Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no
evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his
angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:9-11)
Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we
must resist the devil and make full use of the spiritual protection which
the Lord provides for His people. There is danger in Christian
complacency and inactivity. If we refuse to imitate Jesus, even for
one moment, God won’t force us to obey Him and serve Him, but the devil won’t
be so kind. Our lack of Christ-like living is a void that demons seek to
fill. They don’t care whether or not we invite them in. They don’t care if
we’ve already tossed them out. When we clean sin from our lives, we must fill
our souls with love for the Lord, doing what He wants to do through us.
Otherwise, we’re an open door for evil spirits. Deciding in favor of
keeping a void means we’re tempting demons to come on over and take advantage
of us. But the busier we are doing the Lord’s will, the less we have time
to notice, let alone give in to, their temptations.
Hence, we must always be growing
in the Spirit and in our spiritual life. This is the point of Jesus’
grim story about a vacant house left by an evil spirit, only to be re-inhabited
with more of the same. If we think of it in terms of getting rid of a bad
habit, we all know what happens when we don’t substitute something good to
replace the addiction. It is not enough to banish evil thoughts and
habits. We must also fill the void with God who is the source of all that is
good and upright. What do you fill the void in your life with? We must fill
this void with a strong discipline and fervent prayer.
At the same time, we must remember that in
life there is no middle road. It’s either Satan or God. There
are no neutral parties. We cannot serve two masters. We are either for Jesus or
against Him, for the kingdom of God or against it.
If we disobey God’s word, we open the door to the power of
sin and Satan. If we want to live in freedom from sin and Satan, then
our house must be occupied by Jesus where He is enthroned as Lord and Savior.
We cannot be living in God while rejecting, for example, a moral teaching of
the Church, no matter how inconvenient or difficult it is to obey. There is no
neutral corner where it’s safe to go and do whatever we want, then go to Mass
on Sunday to make sure we won’t go to hell, then return to a life apart from
God. If we want to find peace and security, we must surrender our life to the
Lordship of Christ by obeying his word.
We are the presence of
God in the modern world. Whatever
we do that works against this calling is what makes our hearts become a kingdom
that is divided against itself. We are laid waste by our Christian
inactivity. In fact, every action that is contrary to the life of Jesus brings
evil into the world and infects the Body of Christ. If we truly want to
be with Christ, we need to honestly examine our lives to seek out the places
where we have left a void. What Christ-like deed have we been reluctant to do?
What sin are we enjoying too much to quit? Which teaching of the Church is too
difficult to trust and embrace?
We cannot draw a line
and say that we don’t need to imitate Christ farther than this. Yet, we often rationalize: “I can’t be
expected to live that way! Only a saint could do that. I’m an ordinary
Christian.” There is no line. There is only a choice between Christian activity
and a void that makes us vulnerable to evil. The good news is that we have but
to decide in favor of Christ and He rushes to our aid. God graces us with the
ability to do whatever He asks of us.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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