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From: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2

Call to repentance and prayer

[13] Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests,
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offerings and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.

[14] Sanctify a fast,
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God;
and cry to the Lord.

[15] Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes,

The day of the Lord is coming “after darkness”

[1] Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
[2] a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Invasion by a “powerful people”

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.

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Commentary:

1:13-20. In the form of a poem, the prophet appeals for public conversion and pe-
nance to entreat God to take pity on the people and the land. “Go in, pass the
night in sackcloth” (v. 13) — the same language as is used to describe the pe-
nance done by David when his son was fatally ill (cf. 2 Sam 12:16), and, in ge-
neral, the sign of deep mourning (cf. 1 Kings 21:27, when King Ahab is warned
of what will befall him). Judith 4:8ff mentions priests, people and even livestock
wearing sackcloth. “Sanctify a fast” (v. 14), that is, declare a holy fast, a peni-
tential rite to move God to mercy; other Old Testament references to this are to
be found in 1 Kings 21:9 and Jonah 3:5-9.

The basic purpose of these acts of penance is given in v. 15 with a play on words:
the “day of the Lord” is near; it comes as destruction, as a scourge, shod, from
the Almighty, Shaddai, Verses 16-18 show that the people admit that their pu-
nishment is deserved; this prepares the way for the prophet’s prayer that follows.
In it, Joel cries to the Lord on behalf of the community (v. 19) — and not only he:
“even the flocks of sheep” sigh to God in a mute prayer.

It is significant that the priests are the first to be called to penance (v. 13). they
should be the first to lament — before calling others (elders, all the inhabitants) to
do so (v. 14). This is something embedded in the tradition of the Bible and of the
Church — the idea that ministers should set a good example: “Those who have
been called to wait on the table of the Lord should be praiseworthy, shining exam-
ples of righteousness, unmarked by any stain or taint of sinfulness. They should
live upright lives, as salt of the earth, for their own sake and for the sake of others,
giving good example by their behaviour and deeds, as the light of the world. they
should be mindful of the warning made by the divine teacher Christ Jesus to his
apostles and disciples, and all of their successors, priests and teachers: You
are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be
restored? (Mt 5:13)” (St John Capistrano, “Mirror of the Clergy”, 1, in the Divine
Office, Readings, 23 October).

2:1-11. From the literary point of view, and also by virtue of their theme, these ver-
ses form a well-defined poem: this is signaled by the use of what is called “inclu-
sion”: cf. the reference to the day of the Lord in the first and last verses. The po-
em describes how God manifests his presence among his people, arriving with all
the trappings of power. The passage is reminiscent of the account of the theopha-
ny on Mount Sinai (ex 19:16-25; Deut 4:9-14) and of prophetical texts, too (Zeph
1:15; Is 13:8; etc.). It is all designed to make people conscious of the Lord’s tran-
scendence and power, in order to bring about a change of heart: only God can
chastise them and by so doing rescue them from their anguish.

The first two verses are a call to attention. The trumpet or horn was blown mainly
on two occasions — as an alarm in times of war, or to call an assembly; here, as
in the parallel passage of Zephaniah 1:15-16, it is an alarm call. The “day of the
Lord” (v. 1) arrives like a terrible army with all the panoply of war. St. John’s Gos-
pel, in the prologue (Jn 1:5) and elsewhere (8:12; 13:30; 20:1; etc.), uses lan-
guage similar to that found here (v. 2) depicting darkness and night as elements
hostile to Christ.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 11:15-26:

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan

(Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone
out, the man spoke, and the people marvelled.) [15] But some of them said, “He
casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons”; [16] while others, to test
Him, sought from Him a sign from Heaven. [17] But He, knowing their thoughts,
said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls
upon house. [18] And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his king-
dom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I cast
out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they
shall be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. [21] When a strong man, fully
armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; [22] but when one stron-
ger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which
he trusted, and divides his spoil. [23] He who is not with Me is against Me, and
He who does not gather with Me scatters.”

[24] “When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through water-
less places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from
which I came.’ [25] And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. [26]
Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they en-
ter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

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Commentary:

14-23. Jesus’ enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the miracle.
Since they cannot deny that He has done something quite extraordinary, they
attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than admit that Jesus is the Messiah.

Our Lord answers them with a clinching argument: the fact that He expels de-
mons is proof that He has brought the Kingdom of God. The Second Vatican
Council reminds us of this truth: The Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by prea-
ching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised over
the ages in the Scriptures [...]. The miracles of Jesus also demonstrate that the
Kingdom has already come on earth: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out
demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20); cf. Mat-
thew 12:28). But principally the Kingdom is revealed in the person of Christ Him-
self, Son of God and Son of Man, who came ‘to serve and to give His life as a
ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 5).

The strong man well armed is the devil, who has enslaved man; but Jesus Christ,
one stronger than he, has come and conquered him and is despoiling him. St.
Paul will say that Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a pub-
lic example of them, triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15).

After the victory of Christ the “stronger one”, the words of verse 23 are addressed
to mankind at large; even if people do not want to recognize it, Jesus Christ has
conquered and from now on no one can adopt an attitude of neutrality towards
Him: he who is not with Him is against Him.

18. Christ’s argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can overtake the
Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among believers. We must make
Jesus’ prayer our own: “That they may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they may also be one in us, so that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).

24-26. Our Lord shows us that the devil is relentless in his struggle against man;
despite man rejecting him with the help of grace, he still lays his traps, still tries
to overpower him. Knowing all this, St. Peter advises us to be sober and vigilant,
because “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some
one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Jesus also forewarns us about the danger of being once more defeated by Satan
— which would leave us worse off than were before. The Latin proverb puts it very
well: “corruptio optimi, pessima” (the corruption of the best is the worst.) And St.
Peter, in his inspired text, inveighs against corrupt Christians, whom he com-
pares in a graphic and frightening way to “the dog turning back to his own vomit
and the sow being washed and then wallowing in the mire” (cf. 2 Peter 2:22).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.