Monday 24 January 2022
St Francis de Sales
2 Samuel 5:1-7, 10. My faithfulness and love shall be with him – Psalm 88(89): 20-22, 25-26. Mark 3:22-30.
A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand
Nowadays we hear about political parties shaping the ‘political narrative’ – spinning perceptions of reality to suit their own interests. In today’s Gospel, we see ‘teachers of the law’ doing the same thing regarding Jesus. Because his healing powers threaten their ascendancy, they brand him an agent of Satan; they want to ‘cancel’ him by the power of slander. At some level they believe what they say, which is dire to their souls. Jesus’ riposte is not just for them – his message is eternally vital: by suggesting that the work of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, is evil, they have committed the one unforgivable sin: they have rejected the hope offered by God and called it, instead, deviltry. This is the condition of despair, literally, to place yourself without, meaning beyond, the Holy Spirit. Jesus, thank you for the hope of the Holy Spirit, and the love and mercy that leads us towards it.
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