Friday - October 13, 2017
'Scripture calls material things "the world"; and worldly men are those who occupy their intellect with these things. It is such men that Scripture rebukes when it says: "Do not love the world or the things that are in the world . . . The desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and pride in one's possessions, are not of God but of the world"
--St. Maximos the Confessor
TODAY'S READINGS
October 13, 2017
Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 465
Reading 1JL 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Gird yourselves and weep, O priests!wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
The house of your God is deprived
of offering and libation.
Proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the elders,
all who dwell in the land,
Into the house of the LORD, your God,
and cry to the LORD!
Alas, the day!
for near is the day of the LORD,
and it comes as ruin from the Almighty.
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all who dwell in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming;
Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom,
a day of clouds and somberness!
Like dawn spreading over the mountains,
a people numerous and mighty!
Their like has not been from of old,
nor will it be after them,
even to the years of distant generations.
Responsorial PsalmPS 9:2-3, 6 AND 16, 8-9
R. (9) The Lord will judge the world with justice.I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, Most High.
R. The Lord will judge the world with justice.
You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
their name you blotted out forever and ever.
The nations are sunk in the pit they have made;
in the snare they set, their foot is caught.
R. The Lord will judge the world with justice.
But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has set up his throne for judgment.
He judges the world with justice;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. The Lord will judge the world with justice.
AlleluiaJN 12:31B-32
R. Alleluia, alleluia.The prince of this world will now be cast out,
and when I am lifted up from the earth
I will draw all to myself, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 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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Filling the void
Our Gospel reading today is a reminder that we cannot serve two masters. "Whoever is not with me is against me," Jesus said. Likewise, whoever is with Jesus is fighting against the strategies of Satan. There is no middle ground. We are not living fully in God if we're rejecting, for example, a moral teaching of the Church, no matter how inconvenient or difficult it is to obey.
The moral relativism rampant in our world today has infected many Christians. However, there is no neutral corner where it's safe to make up our own minds about what is right and wrong so that we can do whatever we want, then go to Mass on Sunday to earn points with God, then return to a life that's contrary to the teachings of God.
(A side note: If we think that any of the Church's teachings on moral issues are outdated or unreasonable, it's because we haven't actually read them and looked for the love that's at the core of each teaching.)
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 Christian inactivity -- our lack of Christ-like living -- is a void that demons seek to fill.
When we clean sin from our lives, we must fill our lives with the Lord, doing what he wants to do through us, saying and dreaming and planning and serving as he would do if he were in our shoes (for he does want to walk with us in our shoes). Otherwise, we're an open door for temptation.
Christians are "little Christs"; 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's divided against itself. Do you feel divided?
We all have temporary relapses back to our pre-baptismal sinful nature. The Church offers a cure for this: the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the penance rite at the beginning of each Mass. If we truly want to be with Christ and not against him, we avail ourselves of this cure and we're grateful for it.
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? What 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 room for 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.
Deciding in favor of keeping a void means we're tempting demons to come and take advantage of us. And you know how poorly demons resist temptation! They return the favor by tempting 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.
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God Bless You.....
Rosary Family
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that,
“one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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