27th Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, Oct 8
Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 / Luke 11:15-26
Joel warns the people; The day of the Lord is coming.
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on the night of April 15,1912. It carried over 1,500 people to their death. Recently a magazine asked this question: “If you had been on the Titanic as it was sinking, would you have rearranged the deck chairs?” At first, the question seems ridiculous, but suddenly the point dawns on you: Could people today be rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship? Our world is at a crossroads in its history. We are faced with unprecedented problems which, if unchecked, could sink our civilization. Meanwhile, many people ignore the problems and go on “rearranging deck chairs.” Today’s reading is a warning not only to the people of Malachi’s time but to the people of our time as well.***
How prepared are we, personally, for the Lord’s final coming? Lord, “teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of the heart.” Psalm 90:12
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Judgment. It is an uneasy word. A discomforting possibility. Will it be a discomforting reality? The answer lies in us. The answer lies in our world. Our options are clear. We are facing evil in ourselves and in the world. In a way we judge ourselves, we have to take a stand in the face of evil, in word and deed. And as believers, we must also be conscious of our role of intercession, mediation, and reconciliation.
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Joel (Yahweh is God) is the prophet of Pentecost. Peter quotes him in his sermon (Acts 2,16-21) on Pentecost Sunday. For him, the Babylonian captivity is long past. He lived at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ. The Temple has been rebuilt. Jerusalem is again an important city. Being the prophet of the Spirit of God, he preaches prayer, penance, fasting, for which the church quotes him in the liturgy of Lent. Joel was a learned prophet. The past interests him, but only to find in it a clue for the understanding of the future, and he foresees a strong future. The Day of Yahweh by which he means the day of judgment is near. Among the prophets, he speaks most of the day of Yahweh. This day has signs warning us that it is close at hand. A swarm of locusts has come over the land and devastated it and enemy armies, like locusts, press hard on Israel from every side. His message is: Do penance. The imminent catastrophe should make us think of the mercy of God.
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We see the mystery of evil alive also in the gospel. There are people, also religious people, who see the good works Jesus does, the signs that God’s kingdom is coming and yet do not accept him, reject him or remain neutral. Who is this man? Do we accept him as our Savior? The more we share his life and become familiar with him, the more we will recognize that he is the Son of God, our friend, our Savior. Happy the eyes that see. And he overcomes evil, also in us.
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The presence of evil in a person is often given a medical or psychological rationalization in that it is an ailment that can be treated through medication and therapy. As much as medication and therapy may be helpful, but from the gospels, it is clear that evil is caused by powerful demons that live in or occupy or possess a person who has given in willingly to these demons. But when a person wants to be freed of these evil inhabitants, then we will understand why Jesus cast out demons. Jesus came to break the power of evil over persons who want to be converted and to be freed from the power of evil. But evil spirits or demons need embodiment, meaning to say that when an evil spirit is driven out of a person it will immediately look for another person to inhabit.
In the gospel, Jesus said when an evil spirit comes out of a person, it searches for another place of rest, i.e. another person to inhabit. Not finding one it goes back to the person it came out of and finds it ready and waiting. It even thinks of that person as to its former "home". The spirit re-inhabits the person and brings seven other demons making the state of that person worse than before. Hence for true conversion to happen, there also must be continuing repentance. Driving out the evil spirit is only the beginning. Jesus must be welcomed into the heart to make the heart His home and to keep the person protected from the infiltration of evil spirits who would want to occupy and possess the person again. This is also a reminder for us to always consecrate our hearts to Jesus, to His Most Sacred Heart. In our ongoing conversion and repentance, we beseech the Lord Jesus to also make our hearts like His.
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Prayer: Father of all people, we are recalcitrant sons and daughters. Are we your children or not? God, give us love, give us peace, that your judgment may not condemn us, that you may not come to us when we are not prepared. God, when we have messed up everything, keep sending us, again and again, your Son to put things straight, for we cannot do without him, for he is the Lord and Savior of the world now and forever. Amen
