POWER OVER FALSEHOOD AND DARKNESS

WEDNESDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Prov 30:5-9; Ps 119:28,72,89,101,104,163; Lk 9:1-6

He gave them Power over unclean spirits

The readings lead us deeper into the relationship between God’s word and man. We have rightly noted, following the scriptures, that the man who acts with the right reason already lives with heavenly wisdom because reason is the divine light shining within his rational creatures. By this God-given light domesticated in man, we can understand the proportional goods in the created material universe. In other words, the light of reason is the domesticated word of God within man or his ambassador in us. Hence, we act in synchrony with the will of God whenever we act with the right reason. Every created thing has a truth of its being; that is, the reason for which God brought it into existence. This reason makes it a good thing. We act with the right reason when we desire and attain anything created for the reason God made it. By the light of reason, we can know and act in proportion to the truth of being of each thing. Excess and deficit in this regard make our actions sinful. The reading refers to the purity of the word of God by which he knows a man as a fraud. “Every word of God is unalloyed; he is the shield of those who take refuge in him. To his words make no addition, lest he reprove you and know you for a fraud.”  

Understanding how the divine light installed in us scrutinizes every feeling, thought, emotion, word, and action, the wise man prayed to God to safeguard him from falsehood and lies. “Two things I beg of you, do not grudge me them before I die: keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, ‘the Lord—who is the Lord?” We should pray this prayer often because of our fallen human nature; our inherited and actual sins have habituated our will to disproportional or inordinate desires for creatures and our thoughts to falsehood and lies. Because we have inherited and learned propensities or weaknesses for good things in this life, we live sinful and fraudulent lives before God. We have not recognised the presence of God within us because we live outside among the physical goods we love inordinately or without God. The importance of this petition for our salvation made our Lord include it in the prayer he taught us. “Give us this day our daily bread.” This daily bread is his word that strengthens the light of reason within us and furnishes our will with grace to follow the will of the Father in all things.

The Lord gave this power to his disciples as he sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God comes among men when we walk in harmony with the Father’s will. This understanding leads us to Jesus Christ as the bread of life from heaven to renew our life with God. The Eternal Word assumed the human nature to revive it by binding it again to the divine nature that is its spiritual life and strength. Thus, the authority he gave us over all devils is his divine presence within us. The name of Jesus Christ stands for the power and authority in minds and hearts that have fallen in love with him. “Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” To abound in this power and authority, we must let the message of Christ in all its richness fill us. Only then can we wield the power and authority of the word of God. The power is that of light over darkness, and the authority is that of truth over falsehood. We must first re-install the divine synergy within our minds and hearts for our feelings, emotions, thoughts, words, and actions to carry divine weight again. The restoration requires detachment and sacrifice. As the instruction says: ‘Take nothing for the journey.” Our attachment must be to Jesus Christ alone for us to set out with his word as a lamp for our steps.      

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace for interior conversion of our minds and hearts to you, our ultimate Good, that eating our daily bread of your word, we may be filled with your divine power and authority to proclaim your kingdom and cast out forces of darkness from your people.