Monday,
January 28, 2019
3rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Heb 9:15,24-28
Gospel: Mark 3:22-30
The teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul: the chief of the demons helps him to drive out demons.”
Jesus called them to him and began teaching them by means of stories or parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive. In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished. No one can break into the house of the Strong one in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the Strong one. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.
Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven: he carries the guilt of his sin forever.”
This was their sin when they said, “He has an evil spirit in him.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assi-milated Life Experience)
Bengt de Torne wrote a book about the life of Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period. The book contains some original quotes from Sibelius, among which is, “Never pay attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic” (Sibelius: A Close Up”).
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus did the opposite. Instead of not paying attention to his critics, he patiently rebutted their arguments. In those times, while people recognized the tremendous power of the devil, they affirmed God’s power to be much greater. When Jesus drove out evil spirits successfully, he was overpowering them actually. The logical conclusion ruled out influence by Beelzebul. Jesus was working under the power of someone more powerful. The adversaries weren’t intellectually challenged. As Teachers of the Law they were far from being mentally deranged.
Their problem was prejudice – a malady worse than physical blindness. While physical blindness limits the blind person’s access to facts, prejudice makes the person invent facts from preconceived conclusions. A prejudiced person is like one wearing very dark glasses. Nothing appears bright to him, not even light itself. In the Gospel we read today, even the Son of God looked like a devil to them despite the fact that he was doing the works of God.
If someone as powerful as Jesus failed to open the minds of the Teachers of the Law, then perhaps the wiser for us to do is just to follow the advice of Sibelius: “Never pay attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic”. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.
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