Monday, January 26, 2015
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. (…)
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Bengt de Torne, in his work entitled “Sibelius: A Close Up”, quoted Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period, as saying, “Never pay attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic.” This advice seems operative in Jesus’ way of handling his adversaries. He did not allow his critics to dictate the terms of his mission. He paid attention to them only when he found them useful in deepening his point.
Today’s Gospel reading shows to us how desperate his critiques had become. They had gone to the point of calling him an agent of the devil. How Jesus’ enemies arrived at their conclusion that he was working under the power of Beelzebul is puzzling. In those times while people recognized the tremendous power of the devil, they also affirmed God’s power to be much greater. When Jesus drove out evil spirits thus overpowering them, the logical conclusion would have been that Jesus was working under the power of God. Yet the Teachers of the Law arrived at a different conclusion. In so concluding that he was working for Beelzebul, they were effectively expanding the power of the Evil One.
Prejudice is 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. Even the Son of God looked like a devil to them despite the works of God he was engaged in.
As followers of Jesus we should not expect to be treated any better by prejudiced people. If Jesus who did much greater things was maligned, should we expect critics to put up a statue in our honor? – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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