+ Our readings today are about life and death: eternal life
and eternal death! The first reading situates the battle
between these two very real entities and possibilities from where they
originate – in the Book of Genesis – in the events of “the very beginning” of
human life. Because the woman and then the man disobeyed God’s single
commandment and test sin and death entered the world. Yet, even though the
offspring of the serpent and the children of the woman would be at odds
throughout the coming ages – the Child of the New Woman – the New Eve – Mary –
the Christ – would smash and kill the evil serpent once and for all.
And Jesus accomplished that feat on the
Cross in an enormous act of obedience to his Father’s will and it was the
“beginning of the end of Satan” – even though some of the effects of the
original sin were still to be played out – like the conquering of physical
death once and for all – at the time of the Second Coming.
An eternal existence beyond
our wildest imaginings awaits us – all foretold, preached about, talked about
and demonstrated by Jesus own Resurrection from the Dead to a Newness and
Fullness of Human Life! We will share that very life, after we are admitted through
the passageway of being separated from our human bodies for a short while.
The resurrection of the dead
is real, very real – and the soul that persists after death will be reunited to
it – and then a magnificent, promised, feast will begin in a new heavens and a
new earth!
In the gospel passage Jesus
assures us that Satan had has his day! Even his detractors knows that Jesus is
casting out Satan from people possessed by him, so he tells them, that if I
cast demons out by the Prince of Demons, then I would be defeating myself. This
obviously is not the case. But if I cast them out by the finger of God – then
the power of God has come into your midst.
Jesus was accused of being a
bit crazy, who at some points is beginning to think he is, because his
teachings and actions are so radicall different from other rabbis and teachers
– but his quells the conversation by simply stating that whoever does the will
of God, moment by moment, are brothers and sisters and mothers to me – family
to me – because of their direct connection therefore with Our Father in Heaven
– and you know the rest of the prayer. And a very key line in it is this: Thy
Will be Done on Earth as it is In Heaven!
May we today live as children
of the Father, family of Jesus, and caster of demons both from our lives and
the lives of our loved ones and friends – even strangers – if the Spirit moves
us to do so today! Amen.
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