DOT NOT LET ENVY AND JEALOUSY MAKE YOU DENY THE FACT ABOUT DISCERNING SPIRITUAL REALITY

 Friday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 9th October, 2020.

Readings: Gal 3:7-14, Ps. 111, Luke 11:15-26

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

DOT NOT LET ENVY AND JEALOUSY MAKE YOU DENY THE FACT ABOUT DISCERNING SPIRITUAL REALITY

One of the gifts of God to us is the gift of discernment, which enables us to know and distinguish between good and evil spirit. This gift is very important to the office of every leader. But it is sad and unacceptable when a leader decided to misused this gift out of envy and jealousy. This is the attitudes of some of the people in the crowd especially those who belong to the party of the Pharisee as we have it in our Gospel passage today.

For  we heard how Jesus had delivered a man possessed by an evil spirit. The spirit had bound his tongue and made him mute. But when Jesus had cast out the demon from the man and the man spoke, some people in the crowd who belonged to the party of the Pharisees watched this great miracle as it happened said that it was through the power of Beelzebul the prince of demons that he was able to cast the devil out. 

This is because they were adamant in their opposition against Jesus which were propelled by envy and jealousy. That is why they were unable to look beyond their narrow-mindedness and stubbornness in insisting that their way was the true way while others like our Lord Jesus were wrong. But Jesus as usual used the opportunity to correct them by pointing out the mistakes in their argument. Thus, telling us that it does not make sense for the demons to be fighting one another and so be divided among themselves. Because any house that divides within itself can not stand, and as we know the evil ones are always united in their plans to bring about destruction in human activities.

Hence, in our first reading, St. Paul addressing the ugly divisions sowed by the devil in the community of the faithful in Galatia, made us to know that they will collapsed and fallen apart if all of their members continue to divide against each other. Thus they have to make sure that they overcome the divisions among them and seek true unity in Christ, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might include the pagans, for through faith we all have received the promised Spirit.

Dear friends, we are called today to make proper use of the gift of discernment which the Lord has given us. We must not let envy, jealousy and over ambition make us to deny the truth about the spiritual realities we experience from the Lord. We must not let the devil succeed in sowing the spirit of division among us. We should also ask God to endow us with the spirit of discernment and truth especially this period that we are often faced with the ugly and sad attitude of human deception all over the world.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as we struggle everyday with the manipulation of the evils ones, give us the grace to overcome them, may we never be misled by the devil and all of his forces, as they often attempted to sow divisions and dissensions among us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Peace be with you.