By Francis Gayang csc –
Readings: Joel 1:13-15, 2:1-12; Lk 11-15-26
The crowd was amazed at how Jesus transformed the life of a possessed man. Among the crowd, a group of people raised questions against the authority and the power of Jesus. They could not digest what they had experienced. So instead of praising God for a miraculous healing, they criticized him by accusing Jesus of associating with the Beelzebul. Another group could not believe what they saw, so they wanted to confirm and test him by demanding a sign from heaven. They were skeptical and demanded something as big as a fire or something falling from heaven.
Jesus challenged their illogical logic saying, “every nation divided against itself is on the road to ruin, and a family divided against itself will be destroyed.” In our lives too, when someone is doing well in their life, we tend to pull them down due to jealousy by attributing negative reasons for their success and pass unhealthy comments.
This is not different from the attitude of the crowd who accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebul. Lawrence Durrell says, “It is not love that is blind, but jealousy.” Let us pray with our whole heart, to be humble, open, and not fall into an attitude like that of the crowd by denying the truth and inventing lies.