Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Galatians 3:7-14; Luke 11:15-26)
In today’s first reading St. Paul warns the Galatians about “works
of the Law.” He is not talking about
good deeds done to benefit others.
Rather he has in mind the physical rites of Judaism like circumcision and
continual ablutions. He says that these
are unnecessary and even counterproductive in light of Christ. What saves people – he implores -- is
faith. He will expand that remedy later
in the letter -- “faith working through love.”
In the gospel Jesus preaches along the same line. He tells
the crowd gathered as he drove out a demon the story of a similar
expulsion. He says that when an evil spirit
is driven out, it looks for an opportunity to reenter the poor soul along with
companions. When the victim tidies up
his soul with physical trappings but no works of charity for God’s sake, the demons
attack. They march in like locusts in a
wheat field to cause more harm than before.
Physical trappings for us may be wearing a rosary around our
necks and continual genuflections in front of the altar. These actions are not bad in themselves, but
they lack the power to save. Only as
much as they foster “faith working through love” can they lead us to God’s
Kingdom.
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