Knock Knock

Greetings on this the Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jl 1:13-15; 2:1-2; PS 9:2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9; Lk 11:15-26
Notes:

Yesterday we are reminded to ask, seek and knock.

And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

First reading
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all who dwell in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming;
Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom,
a day of clouds and somberness!

Responsorial Psalm
The Lord will judge the world with justice.

Alleluia Verse
The prince of this world will now be cast out,
and when I am lifted up from the earth
I will draw all to myself, says the Lord.

Gospel Portion
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday focused on prayer.
Today: the power of prayer.

The lasting impression should be that if you submit anything to the Lord in prayer He will hear and answer and sometimes answer in ways unseen before!!

So pray in community, persistently and in power!

Jesus had driven out a demon.

• This power beyond power over earth and body!
• The power over the unseen spirits as well!!

Some doubted.
Jesus reminds them that it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
[and therefore] the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

Serious references here!!

During the Exodus event. Exodus 8:12ff and following (ff).
Third Plague: The Gnats

Exodus 8:15a and the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

And again

Daniel 5:5ff
The Writing on the Wall.
Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace. When the king saw the hand that wrote, his face became pale; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.

Jesus is making it clear that just as in Exodus Pharaoh refused to believe he was encountering the Lord and in Daniel, Belshazzar (a king) was also unable to comprehend the encounter, we too are warned.

These who doubted were every bit like the Pharaoh and the king – accustomed to being in control and the sole source of power. The warning in the gospel portion today brings us back to the ignoble end of Pharaoh and Belshazzar both.

The Lord is all powerful.
The Lord’s power is for healing and return.
The power of men is certain doom.

Knock knock.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry