Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 / Luke 11:15-26
To surrender in a battle is considered a dishonour and a disgrace. It is often said that it is better to die in battle than to surrender in disgrace.
The other alternative would be to withdraw and retreat, and hope to live to fight another day.
Of course that can be considered only when the battle is still going on and the outcome is yet to be determined.
In the gospel, Jesus said it very clearly that in the spiritual battle between good and evil, the kingdom of God has already overtaken the powers of darkness.
In other words, the victory belongs to God. Although it is a lost cause for the devil and his demons, they will continue to inflict as much destruction to mankind as possible, and drag as many souls as they can to go down with them to their eternal damnation.
But that is evil and they will just destroy at any cost and at all cost.
We need not panic nor be fearful, but we need to be alarmed and alert.
And that is the call of the 1st reading. The day of the Lord is approaching; vengeance and vindication is approaching.
We need to stand ready, we need to stand alert. Evil may be having the upper hand and may seem to gaining victory.
We must not surrender to evil. We only need to stand by Jesus and He will lead us to victory.