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: Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri is visiting. See post on his visit.
Hammas and Israel continue to fight. Hammas is drawing Israel into a bloody and horrible house-to-house war.
Palestinians are the only ones who can stop this, somehow. Palestine is in need to reorient themselves to justice and peace. Israel: give space for the Palestinian elders to fast and pray.
Palestine
Proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the elders,
all who dwell in the land.
Hammas is like the evil described in today’s gospel portion.
Hammas
“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”
Israel
Do not think you are innocent of blood.
The nations are sunk in the pit they have made; in the snare they set, their foot is caught. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, TEKEL, and PERES.
These words mean:
- Mene – Do not suppose your strength is unbounded by divine law.
- Tekel – You too are in error.
- Peres – Do not become the evil you despise.
First Reading
Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom,
a day of clouds and somberness!
Like dawn spreading over the mountains,
a people numerous and mighty!
Their like has not been from of old,
nor will it be after them,
even to the years of distant generations.
Proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the elders,
all who dwell in the land,
Into the house of the LORD, your God,
and cry to the LORD!
Responsorial
The Lord will judge the world with justice.
You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
their name you blotted out forever and ever.
The nations are sunk in the pit they have made;
in the snare they set, their foot is caught.
Gospel Acclamation
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
When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry