Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Aris Martin SVD (USA)
Wednesday 7th Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading, James warns us not to presume that tomorrow will come; instead, “If God wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” (James 4,15) Perhaps the clearest face of evil is this thought: “I am doing it my way and God has nothing to do with it.” We push God away from our activities, thoughts and plans presuming that we do better as human beings without God.
How can we understand the human person and the world apart from the mind of God who created us? It is deadly to presume that our own “creations” are “God’s”. James emphatically says, “It is a sin.” (James 4,17)
In the Gospel, John saw someone, presumed to be an outsider or enemy, driving out demons. Revealing God’s boundless will that breaks our deadly and constricted presumptions, Jesus said: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9,40)
Jesus revealed the enemy: not the outsider, not the foreigner, not the non-Catholic but the “demon” who says: “I do not need God.” Our enemy is the “demon” who goes to Church but does not care for those in need; the husband who continues to hurt his wife and children by his unfaithfulness; the wife who continues to nag her husband or care less in a house where she has to make home.
Let us stop presuming that our enemy is outside of us or is yet to come. The enemy is inside us, here and now, in the arrogance within us crying out, “I can live without God.” To drive out the demons within us is to live the moment, to be present in every space and time given to us by God. Living the moment is to live for God. It is a taste of eternity.
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