Make The Lord Your Refuge

Joel 1:13-15,2:1-2
Luke 11:15-26

During much of his public ministry, Our Lord seems to have sought to play down His true identity. Sometimes he urges silence and other times when confronted by the other with the question about his identity, He remains enigmatic or turns the table around by puzzling them up in wonder. The event, we encounter in today’s gospel passage was no doubt, a manifestation of God’s saving work and it seems to have annoyed the Pharisees to the point that rather than give glory to God who has wrought such wonders in casting out a devil, they accused Jesus of using the power of Satan Beezebul -the prince of devils to cast out the devil. It means therefore that if the world can question the power of Jesus then they can question the power of the Church and every believer.

Wherever Jesus goes the Creator Spirit brings life, and men and women are healed of diseases of both the body and spirit. God’s presence is made manifest in the human being’s integral healing. By this, Jesus reveals the face of the true God, a loving Father, the God who is close, full of mercy for every human being; the God who makes us a gift of life in abundance, his own life.”Late Pope Benedict XVI while addressing the audience at the ANGELUS on St Peter’s Square on Sunday, 27 January 2008, mentioned that “ God reigns in the world through his Son made man and with the power of the Holy Spirit who is called “the finger of God” (Lk 11: 20). Thus, the Holy Spirit can make use of anyone who has faith in Jesus to bear testimony to God’s presence in the world. According to St Augustine: ‘Faith is to believe in the Word of God, what we do not see, and its reward is to see and enjoy what we believe’.
The Holy Spirit is the author of sacred Scripture and he tells us more about Christ through the Church and God’s power will always triumph over sickness, evil, and death. Only Jesus is the Divine Legislator. God is the Eternal Judge.

The day of the Lord is much closer now than the time of Joel. Wake up and start afresh. May we not be unjustly condemned but that through the world will come to lasting peace. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho