January 15, 2019
Tuesday, 1st Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Heb 2:5-12
Gospel: Mk 1:21–28
Jesus and his disciples went into the town of Capernaum and Jesus began to teach in the synagogue during the Sabbath assemblies. The people were astonished at the way he taught, for he spoke as one having authority and not like the teachers of the Law.It happened that a man with an evil spirit was in their synagogue and he shouted, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: You are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus faced him and said with authority, “Be silent and come out of this man!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and, with a loud shriek, came out of him. All the people were astonished and they wondered, “What is this? With what authority he preaches! He even orders evil spirits and they obey him!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The spirit possessing the man in today’s Gospel reading was an evil one because it resisted God. As soon as it felt the presence of Jesus it showed vehement resistance, crying out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” This was a Hebrew expression of “hostility” (see Judges 11: 12, 2 Chr. 35:21, 1 Kgs. 17:18) or “denial of common interest” (Hos. 14:9, 2 Kings 3:13).
This Gospel passage pricks our consciences because by habitual sinning we too submit ourselves to evil possession. The same can predetermine our fate. Many hardened sinners have cursed God at the last moments of their lives instead of taking advantage of their last precious minutes to repent.
The same can be said of those who procrastinate. Those who keep evading the right path with a view to take it when death is near also submit themselves to the evil spirit. The strategy of taking the last bus does not always work. While God can always forgive us even at the last minute, the devil is not willing to surrender us back to God any time we want to return to Him.
Thus far is how powerful evil is. We have heard of people who struggle to get away from the loop of habitual sinning but to no avail. To them every rising becomes prelude to another fall. This is surely the work of the devil. But while it appears that there is no way out for those possessed by an evil spirit, one is not totally left without remedial recourse. God’s grace will always win. For as long as people put up a fight, God will triumph in them in the end, for surely God is more powerful than the evil spirit.
But for as long as these people struggle, God will revail in them in the end, for surely God is more powerful than the evil spirit. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/ name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.