Friday of the
Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Galatians 3:7-14; Luke 11:15-26)
In every election cycle candidates court the people’s favor
by distributing T-shirts. If they are incumbents, they finagle
legislation that gives voters more incentives to vote for them. Like the crowd in the gospel wondering if
Jesus casts out demons because he is in league with Beelzebub, the voters
should question such freebies.
Knowing the suspicions of the people, Jesus tries to assuage
their doubts in different ways. First,
he uses logic. Beelzebub would be
working against himself, he says, if he were casting out demons in his name. Then Jesus tries to convince the people of
his innocence with a comparison. He
casts out demons no differently than local healers. If they suspect him of being in league with
the devil, should they not also question the validity of the village exorcist? Finally, Jesus proposes a challenge. They should accept his marvelous deeds – he tells
them - as a sign that the Kingdom of God has finally come. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful!” he intimates.
But Jesus does not avoid the fact that the coming of the Kingdom
will entail a response on the part of its beneficiaries. People have to convert to its standards of justice,
compassion, and peace. If not, the vacuum
created by the removal of the evil spirit will invite an even more pernicious presence. We might think of a household that has been exterminated
of mice. But unless safeguards against
pests are put in place quickly, rats will invade the house in force.
No comments:
Post a Comment