Today we hear the Lord heal a man who was possessed by a demon and his adversaries right away claimed that he must be in cahoots with Beelzebul the Prince of the Devil. To his adversaries, there is no way he could act so powerfully against the demons without permission or power from the Devil himself. The response of Jesus was that if the Devil was fighting the Devil, then the days of the Devil and his kingdom were numbered. The Devil was on a self-destructive path. Simply said, the Lord argued that the allegations levelled against Him were illogical, absurd, and downright laughable.
We Love Gossip
It is not unusual for someone’s enemies to resort to the tactic of slander when they cannot come up with anything substantial to explain the good performance or the success of the person they don’t like. Slander is likely to stick because we human beings tend to think of the worst about people. We would rather hear negative or derogatory information about someone than the positive or complimentary information about someone. Politicians know this well, and the media knows this so well and it plays on it all the time. Two of the eight news values taught in journalism school include a focus on conflict, the bizarre or the odd. That kind of news sells!
How often do we deliberately assume low or negative intentions about people we dislike? How often do we repeat slanderous and malicious allegations about people? How often do we tend to think the worst of people and where does such an attitude come from? May we ask God to teach our tongues and hearts what it means to be charitable, to be gracious, and to be kind to other people especially those we find difficult to love.
Choosing Good
Lastly, in our gospel today, we also get to reflect on the existence of forces of good and of evil in our world. This belief is not a mere fantasy or a fairy tale. Jesus believed in the existence of forces of good and evil, and He also believed the two forces are at war with each other. We as believers in Christ follow His example and in no way need to let ourselves be naïve or dismissive of the existence of the forces of light and darkness in our world.
The Lord says that in the ongoing battle between light and darkness, we need to choose a side. There is no room for neutrality or sitting on the fence. There are contemporary matters of faith and morals on which we cannot stand on the fence or act neutral. Whereas all truth has to be told in charity and with compassion, we cannot stand on the fence, be equivocal, or be fluid about which side we stand on matters of faith and morals.
Witnesses of Truth
May we ask the Lord for grace to be bold witnesses to the truth. May we be transparent about whose side we stand on in the ongoing spiritual tensions we inhabit in our world. May we also never lose sight of the fact that God has overcome everything already on our behalf.
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