Monday, August 29, 2016

22nd Week, Ordinary Time, Tuesday, 30-08-16

1 Cor 2:10-16 / Luke 4:31-37

All kinds of people come to Church. Of course, by and large, it is mostly Catholics who come to Church.

And there may be visitors who just stroll in to find out what the Church is like. but these may be far and few between.

People come to Church for Mass, to worship, to pray, to find peace, to reflect and meditate upon the things of God.

In the gospel, Jesus was in Capernaum and on the sabbath, He taught in their synagogue, and His teaching made a deep impression because He spoke with authority.

And then something unusual happened. In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil and it started shouting at the top of its voice.

What is unusual is that why would a man who was possessed by the devil go to the synagogue in the first place. In fact, that would be the last place for a man who was possessed to go to.

Could it be that the possessed man was seeking deliverance in other places and by other means and finally came to the synagogue as a last resort?

Could he have been led there by another spirit, namely the Holy Spirit, who reaches to the depths of everything, as the 1st reading puts it.

And it was there at the synagogue, that the possessed man finally received deliverance from Jesus.

We who come to Church are certainly not possessed by any kind of evil spirit. But at the same time, are we filled with the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit reaches into the depths of our being, so that as we come to Church to hear the Word of God, we will go forth to proclaim the Good News of salvation to the world.