Choosing Between Satan’s Snares and God’s Will!

(Homily 10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

     The readings of this Sunday are replete with many themes for reflection, ranging from the disobedience of the first parents, its consequences on Satan and man, the hope of eternal glory in all tribulations, to the blasphemy against Jesus and his preferential option for the will of God, which surpasses the power of human blood ties. In all, the point that dovetails into the three readings is the latent call to choose and prefer the will of God to the promptings of Satan. For indeed, there is an eloquent presence of the evil one in the existential journey of believers in Christ. But the Good News of today is that in both the ordinary and extraordinary works of the Devil, Satan has been defeated and in the midst of many tribulations, an incomparable eternal weight of glory awaits us. Therefore, it is upon this moral spiritual consciousness that we are called to choose God’s will against Satan’s snare.

     In the first reading (Gen. 3:9-15), we reckon with the emblematic reality of the Original sin, which marked the dramatic origin of humanity. The quest to be like God was the presumption of man at the beginning, the desire for an absolute autonomy from God, the dream to be without Him. But the whole drama turned against man, for he ended up as slave to Satan and thus, fell into the deceptive hands of the tempter, who entered into the world as the “prince of this world” (Jn. 14:30), in order to terrorize the children of God. Consequently, man came out of that dramatic situation divided and in struggle against each other. Adam accuses Eve, Eve accuses Adam and the snake, and later Cain accused and eliminated Abel. And unfortunately, this chain of accusation, hatred, division and envy has continues till today.

     In today’s gospel (Mk. 3:20-35) St. Mark presented the ugly encounter of Jesus with the scribes, who accused Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul, and attributed his mighty works and miracles to the demon. “He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (Mk. 3:22). This biblically, is one of the heaviest blasphemy against Jesus.  The worst attack on Jesus is the consideration that he was possessed by a devil. For it is not only an attack on his works and the source of them, but regrettably on his ontology, on his person, as the Son of God. But to their illogical way of reasoning, Jesus sought to help to reason a bit: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mk. 3:24). And consequently, he told them: “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilt of an eternal sin” (Mk. 3:28-29). This concept of ‘blasphemy against Holy Spirit’ is common in the synoptic gospel (cf. Mt. 12:22-32; Lk. 12:10). And one may ask, what are the sins against the Holy Spirit? There are basically six ways one can sin against the Holy Spirit: ●Despair: that is when one cease to hope for his/her personal salvation from God, and for help in attaining it or for forgiveness of one’s sins. ●Presumption of God’s mercy: the hope to save oneself without the help of God and the hope to obtain God’s forgiveness without conversion. ●Watering down the known truth: this has to do with attack on religious truths, by word or by argument, in order to resist and contradict it or even to oppose it. ●Envy the spiritual good of another: it has to do with envying the spiritual gifts of another, and it amounts to questioning the Divine judgment of the Holy Spirit in his distribution of spiritual gifts. ●Obstinacy in sin: this has to do with the resistance of the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, stubborn and persistent in sin. ●Final impenitence: entails remaining unrepentant, hardened without regret or remorse for one’s sins

     In the second moment, Jesus demonstrates that family for him is not just by blood, but by adherence to the will and obedience to the Word of God. Jesus broke the ties and circle of physical human relations, he broke the circle of blood and race. He launched a new family, the family of God, the family of those who are brothers, and sisters and friends not because they are born out of the will of women or men, but because they are born out of God (cf. Jn.1:13). Indeed, those that brought Jesus the news that his mother and his relatives were looking for him to take him back to the house, gave Him the opportunity to point out that family for him is beyond natural blood ties. For he reacted immediately, “who are my mother and my brothers?’” (Mk.3:33). At first glance, the response of Jesus gives the impression that he is unconcerned and somewhat disrespectful towards his mother and relatives. In another passage Jesus reacted apparently in a harsh way to the mother thus: “Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet” (Jn. 2:4). But in reality he was neither disrespectful nor rude to them. For with the affirmation: “He who does the will of God is my brother, my sister and my mother” (Mk. 3:35), Jesus intends here, to communicate that the ties of faith is stronger than the blood ties. For the ties of faith is sealed by the blood of Christ. It is the exercise of obedience to God’s will that makes us closer to Him.

     Behold, Jesus is the perfect model of submission and the fulfilment of the will of the Father. In Jesus words: “Here I am, I am coming, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, God” (Heb. 10:7). His gaze was always fixed on the will of God, the fulfilment of the Father’s will is the pillar of his existential program. Little wonder, he affirmed: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work” (Jn.4:34). In fact, during the supreme moment of his trial, in the Garden of Olive, when his human nature reckoned with the pains of the Passion, he exclaimed: “Abba, Father! For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it” (Mk. 14:36). Obedience to the Father, the fulfilment of the Father’s will synthesizes the life of Jesus. Indeed, St. Paul captured it vividly well, “He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names” (Phil. 2:8-9). This manner of adherence to the Father’s will is what Jesus demands from his disciples and from us too: “It is not anyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7:21).

     The most eloquent and perfect disciple of Jesus is the Mother, Mary, who is united to and with Christ by means of family blood and at the same time with the most profound tie of fulfilment of God’s will. She is the one very close to Jesus in a spiritual resemblance, not by somatic traits but by total disposition to do the will of God. Indeed, from the Annunciation to the Calvary, the life of Mary can be condensed in her fiat: “Mary Said, You see before you Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said” (Lk. 1:38). ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord’, as such, Mary declared herself willing and ready to do the will of God.

     Be that as it may, by means of this perfect obedience to the Father, by Christ the Redeemer and Mary Co-Redemptrix, we are redeemed from the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Evil entered into the world when they rebelled against God, when they sought for their complete autonomy and independence, as it is evident in the first reading. Truly, contrary to the disobedience of Adam and Eve that brought us death; rehabilitation and redemption came through the obedience of Christ and Mary.

     As such, the road of obedience becomes the principal road that man has to follow, as a child of God and a disciple of Christ. For when man distances himself from the will of God, to follow other roads, he ends up in ruin. The abandonment of the will of God in search of other egoistic, seductive and individualistic projects leads man to his ruin, it takes him back to the road of slavery and not of freedom. It is of course, obvious that sometimes it is difficult and demanding to do the will of God (we cannot but find inspiration with Christ who paid with his life). Indeed, it is a sacrifice that redeems us, it is a fecund sacrifice.

     A gaze back to the first reading reveals that right from the beginning, God gives humanity a great message of salvation, a good news, which anticipates the Gospel: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel” (Gen.3:15). This promise was realized in and with the coming of Christ, in particular with the event of his Passion, Death and Victorious Resurrection. Christ indeed, is the ‘most powerful Man’ that the Gospel talks about. Satan, the deceiver is by no means the Lord of the world, he has been blocked and caged by “the Man” more powerful than him, namely Christ. Sequel to this, Jesus posited at the imminence of his Passion: “Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be driven out” (Jn. 12:31). And we have been made participants of the victory of Christ over Satan. Our liberation was gained the day of our baptism, to say it with St. Paul: “It is he who has rescued us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). However, the struggle with and against the evil one is not yet over, rather the fight is more arduous, the devil continues his devastating work and plot against the children of light.

     No doubt, the bible and the Gospel in particular, affirm clearly the existence of Satan, the tempter. Contrarily, he who says that Satan does not exist, is rendering him a service, and doing a disservice to his life of grace and salvation. In fact, the tendency of negating the existence of the devil is itself, a wonderful tactics of the Devil, so as to act undisturbed. On this, St. John categorically declared: “This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the Devil” (1Jn. 3:8). John traced the reason of the coming of Jesus to the fight against Satan. No doubt, with this in view, Jesus sternly alerted his apostles thus: “Look, Satan has got his wish to sift you all like wheat” (Lk.22:31). Therefore, we have to be vigilant and strong to resist him. St. Peter admonished us thus: “keep sober and alert, because your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1Pt. 5:8-9).We can protect ourselves against the works of the Devil with the armour of prayer and the sacraments. The battle against the Devil remains always open, and of course, it will end with our death, but we are consoled by the word of God in Romans 8:37, as St. Paul tells us “we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of Him who loved us”. And interestingly, in the words of the second reading, united with Christ, “the temporary, light burden of our hardships is earning us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory” (2Cor. 4:17).

     The second reading (2Cor. 4:13-5:1) is a wonderful consideration of the hope of eternal glory that awaits God’s children, and “that is why we do not waver” (2Cor. 4:16). And as such, we are encouraged not to be weighed down by the present affliction that may come in form of the ordinary and extraordinary works of the devil. St. Paul gives us the reason to remain firm in the following words: “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2Cor. 4:18). Indeed, the phrase “we believe, and so we speak” (2Cor. 4:13) is predicated upon the hope of what God will do for us in and through the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

     In all, the readings of today brings to our consideration the fact that as far as we are in this world, we will encounter many afflictions and temptations by the temper. However, the word of God invites us to remain firm like Jesus to the Father’s will. For separated from Him we can do nothing (Jn.15:5). And this has to reflect in the choice we make, for or against God. To say it with the Vatican Exorcist of blessed memory, Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “We must choose between Satan’s snares and God’s promises. The first Adam chose Satan’s snare. The second Adam, Christ, chose obedience to God” (An Exorcist, More Stories, p.30). May God help us to choose his will and promises against the enticing snares of Satan. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)