＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2

 Gird yourselves,

O priests, and weep; mourn, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sack­cloth, O ministers of my God! For the house of your God is deprived of grain and drink offering.

 Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land into the house of your God, and cry out to Yahweh,   “What a dreadful day – the day of Yahweh that draws near and comes as ruin from the Almighty!”

 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming. Yes, the day is fast approaching –  a day of gloom and darkness, a day of clouds and blackness.

A vast and mighty army comes, like dawn spreading over the mountain, such as has never occurred be-   fore nor will happen again in the future.

 

Ps 9:2-3, 6 & 16, 8-9

The Lord will judge the world with justice.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊  

Luke 11:15-26

 Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” So others wanted to put him to the test by asking him for a heavenly sign.

 But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his em­pire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Bee­lze­bul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your fellow mem­bers drive out demons? They will be your judge, then.

 But suppose I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God has come upon you? As long as the strong and armed man guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger one attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on and disposes of his spoils.

 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands looking for a resting place. And finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came. When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. 

Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

Jesus’enemies are dumb-founded. Jesus performs exorcism with effortless ease. As much as they want to acknowledge it deep down, they must try to discredit it. For demonic power bows to no other power but God’s.

The only conclusion the public could draw from Jesus’ exorcism activities was that He was God who could drive out devils by mere command. His enemies could not accept this.

But they could advance no other argument than the fallacious statement that Jesus drove out demons by the power of demons. As response, Jesus exposed the incoherence of their words.

He could not have been a demon driving out His own minions. He well essentially weaken His power base. Their argument is also an insult to the exorcist that came before Jesus.

The subtle implication is that they too were demons driving out demons. Then He warned His listeners that the devil could still put up a good fight by finding allies among the people of God. For some, after being freed from the devil backslides. Exorcism leaves a void in his or her soul.

If we do not fill up the void with God’s grace, the devil returns and repossesses the former victim. He or she will be much worse than before. In this sense, the devil wins the war.