The gospel for Monday of the third week in Ordinary Time is taken from Mark, third chapter 22 30th verse. The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said to Jesus, he is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons. He drives out demons, summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. That is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property. Unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can plunder his house and men. I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.

For they had said he has an unclean spirit. It was impossible to write off Jesus as somebody who was not powerful. So they attributed his power to Satan, which makes no real sense that Satan would work in contrary to Satan’s goal to overcome human beings will and to drive them into evil. So what we see here is a clarity of what it means to be in the kingdom of God. We need to surrender to the truth that God has given the power to Jesus to overcome all evil. If we believe that we’re in his kingdom and being in his kingdom is allowing God to love us, forgive us, be there for us, and save us from all that is evil.

Please take a few moments to reflect upon the meaning of these passages and I will return with a closing prayer. Closing prayer Father, the Holy Spirit is your divinity living in each of us. It’s up to us to open our hearts to it in order to receive it. So bless us with a conviction that your strength, your power is what we need and what will overcome all of our obstacles of becoming who God wants us to be. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.