THE DIFFICULTY OF REJECTING SATAN


WEDNESDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 3:1-9; Ps 33:12-15,20-21; Lk 4:38-44

Our Cooperation with God for Salvation

We understand our salvation to be such a great gift from God when we think of it and penetrate its depth and mystery. But the complete comprehension of the mystery of man and his salvation in Jesus Christ is something beyond the comprehension of our mortal composition and manner of thinking and knowing. We have conceived our salvation variously. We have understood it as a communion with the Triune God. A communion with God means the exclusion of every form of evil within and among us. This is according to the word of God at the time of the fall, which cut short the communion that began in the Garden of Eden. The promise to create enmity between the woman and the serpent, between her Offspring and the serpent's offspring, is progressively realised in our lives and through us in the Church. What the devil has forcefully taken from us, by the just permission of God, the Son of Man reclaims for us by his forceful ejection of demons from among us and within us. But what the devil has subtly and cunningly taken from us, with our cooperation and just permission of God, the Son of Man takes back for us through the enlightenment of his teaching and ministry.

As we pointed out yesterday, the former operation of the Word of God is easy, for it does not require our cooperation as such; but the satisfaction of divine justice, which the sacrifice of the Son of Man as the Lamb of God fulfils. The latter operation is more complicated and subtle, for it requires our willingness, cooperation, and satisfaction of divine justice. While these three are objectively present in the Son of Man and his sacrificial life, passion, death, and resurrection, they need to be instantiated within each person’s life. Because we willingly went down the mountain of God in the company of demons, we must willingly climb back in the company of the Holy Spirit and the angels. Cf. Heb. 12:1-24. Our conversion is our decision to walk and cooperate with God for our salvation and the salvation of others. Saint Paul writes of this cooperation with God. “After all, what is Apollos and what is Paul? They are servants who brought the faith to you. Even the different ways in which they brought it were assigned to them by the Lord. I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God made things grow. Neither the planter nor the waterer matters: only God, who makes things grow.”  Because sin entered deep within each of us, we grow into communion with God, as the apostle’s words reveal. We reject the devil and our friendship with him as we grow in the knowledge of God and communion with him in mysteries.

The Holy Spirit, who lives within us, enlightens us with the word of God through the ministry of the teachers and preachers of the Gospel; he also teaches us everything around us. He guides us to reject the devil, his empty promises, and friendship. The retarded growth of the Corinthians was of concern to Paul. “Brothers, I myself was unable to speak to you as people of the Spirit: I treated you as sensual men, still enfants in Christ. What I fed you with was milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” Lack of attention to Jesus Christ causes us retarded growth in our spiritual life and slow disengagement from the devil. Greater attention to Jesus Christ hastens our growth in God’s communion. As we read in the Gospel, Jesus’ presence hastened the people’s freedom from bodily and spiritual illnesses, and demonic oppression. “At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hand on each he cured them.” We must voluntarily come to Jesus daily, for he is the heart of our communion with God and bring our relatives and friends along to encounter him.

Let us pray: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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