One Minute Reflection – 9 October – Friday of the Twenty Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Readings: Galatians 3:7-14, Psalms 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, Luke 11: 15-26 and the Memorial of Saint Denis of Paris (Died c 258) and Companions, the First Bishop of Paris, Martyr
“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…” – Luke 11:24
REFLECTION – “The unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul was still committing fornication against God and was with it’s lovers, the demons.
Afterward it said, “I will return to my first husband” and came to Christ, who “created” it from the beginning “in his image.”
Necessarily, the adulterous spirit gave up his place when it saw the legitimate husband.
Christ received us and our house has been “cleansed” from it’s former sins. It has been “furnished” with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful that they who have been initiated know.
This house does not deserve to have Christ as it’s resident immediately, unless it’s life and conduct are so holy, pure and incapable of being defiled, that it deserves to be the “temple of God.”
It should not still be a house but a temple in which God dwells.
If it neglects the grace that was received and entangles itself in secular affairs, immediately, that unclean spirit returns and claims the vacant house for itself.
“It brings with it seven other spirits more wicked,” so that it may not be able again to be expelled “and the last state of that kind of person is worse than the first.”
It would be more tolerable, that the soul would not have returned to it’s first husband once it became a prostitute, than having gone back after confession, to her husband, to have become an adulteress again.
There is no “fellowship,” as the apostle says, “between the temple of God and idols,” no “agreement between Christ and Belial.” – Origen of Alexandria (c 185-253) (Homilies on Exodus, 8)
PRAYER – Lord God, You sent St Denis and his companions to proclaim Your glory to the nations and gave them the fortitude to die for Your sake. Help us, by their exmple, to meet with a like indifference, the triumphs and afflictions this world has to offer. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, one God with You and the Holy Spirit, now and for all eternity, amen.
AnaStpaul 