27th Week in Ordinary Time
Denis and Companions / John Leonardi

1st Reading: Jl 1:13–15; 2:1–2
Gospel: Lk 11:15–26
When Jesus was casting out a devil some of the people said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” So others wanted to put him to the test by asking him for a heavenly sign. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your fellow members drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.
“But suppose I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God has come upon you? As long as the strong and armed man guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger one attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on and disposes of his spoils. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.
“When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands looking for a resting place. And finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

Commentary
The world has been “on the road to ruin” for a long time now. The history of the world is one of power, self-destruction, war, greed and ignorance. Only by God’s grace is anything resembling a peaceful or loving society in existence anymore. We will only ever have a world that resembles a moral one, if we the people exercise our right to vote for the welfare of all the people of the world.
Unfortunately, many people are not politically astute enough to see the ways, in which they are being tricked into voting for corrupt, single issues, rather than looking past the corruption in government and seeing the moral issues of the larger picture involved and at play. While the focus of world leaders continues to be on nationalistic self-interest, they continue sidelined moral issues, like peace and non-violence. Then they proceed to steal our future by sending us to war, just to make themselves richer. Their wars destroy our livelihood and our homes, wreaking havoc on the environment and turning us and our family into slaves to pay back their debt. God help us all!

________
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc., 8 Mayumi St., U.P. Village, Diliman, Quezon City, U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman, 1101 Quezon City; Tel. No. (02) 921-39-84; Fax No.: (02) 921-62-05 E-mail: cci@claret.org; Websites: http://www.claretianpublication.com (Claretian Publications) & http://www.claretphilippines.org (Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines) Claretian HOPE CENTER: Aurora Milestone Tower, 1045 Aurora Blvd., Loyola Heights, Quezon City E-mail: hopecenter07@yahoo.com/hopecenter07@gmail.com