Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 27, 2025
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus,
“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and
“By the prince of demons he drives out demons.”
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
“How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder his house.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies
that people utter will be forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”
For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Reflection
The term Beelzebul comes to us through the Greek Gospel of Mark, but its origin is Semitic. The Hebrew Ba`al Zebul means “Lord of the High Place” and refers to the Canaanite God Ba`al, a name that Jews at the time of Jesus used as an epithet for the devil. In the Vulgate this becomes Beelzebub, which in Hebrew would be “Lord of the Flies” (perhaps an intentional satire), whence the title that William Golding would use for the title of his novel.
This passage begins with an attempt to explain away the miracles of Jesus, or rather to use the miracles of Jesus as an occasion to malign him (today, we might say “cancel” him). His supernatural deeds prove that the devil is working through him, his opponents suggest. Thereby, they misrepresent the Son of God as the son of the devil. From this perspective, it is not surprising how severe the Lord’s response is at the end of the passage: this sort of “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” is total opposition to God’s plan and, therefore, involves total separation from God.
When Blessed Francisco, Blessed Jacinta, and Sister Lucia were visited by the Virgin Mary at Fatima in May 1917, they were accused of deceiving others and of being deceived themselves. Some suggested that they might be victims of something demonic. Yet the Church patiently heard their stories and studied their holy lives with care. The church came not only to trust that the visitations were from God, but also that these young children might guide us closer to God.
Let us remember to trust the Lord, the Gospel, and the church.
Prayer
Lord, Guiding Light, You teach us to call you alone our Teacher, our Parent, our Lord. Help us to trust your instruction and guiding graces in our lives more unreservedly each day. We know, too, that you often mediate your graces through others, And have entrusted to us your mission to teach, to parent, to steward. Grant us the grace to respond with generosity and compassion, and especially as we begin Catholic Schools Week, bless all teachers whom you have called to pass on the light of knowledge and faith to our young. We ask this through Christ, our Lord and Teacher. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Angela Merici was a laywoman in fifteenth-century Italy who revolutionized the education of women as well as religious life.
She was born in 1474, the younger of two girls. By the time Angela was 15, the sisters were orphaned and sent to live with an uncle. Angela was distraught when her older sister died suddenly without receiving a final anointing. This event sent Angela to prayer—she joined a group of laypeople who lived in the spirituality of St. Francis, and she prayed fervently for the soul of her sister. She eventually received a vision in which she saw her sister celebrating in heaven.
Angela was admired for her beauty, and people found her hair especially pretty. To divert attention from herself, Angela covered her hair in ashes.
When she was 20, her uncle died, and she returned to her family home. She saw a great need for Christian education for girls—at the time women were educated only if they were rich or if they became religious sisters. Angela, herself, had only received an education by her own hard work.
At the time, girls fell through cracks in the educational system because women were not allowed to be teachers. Unmarried women could not do their own work outside of the house, and nuns lived in cloisters and could not leave the convent.
In response, Angela turned her house into a school to teach girls in her city of Brescia. Other young women joined her there; she formed these teachers into a community dedicated to the education of young women, and their work began to spread. “You have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service,” she told her companions.
In 1524, she took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, she stopped in Crete and was suddenly struck blind. She continued on the pilgrimage, visiting all the sites as though she could see. When she was returning home, she stopped in Crete again, and her sight was restored while she was praying in front of a crucifix. For this reason, she is a patron saint of sick people and those who are disabled.
When the pope heard of the good work she was doing, he invited her to move to Rome. Angela saw this opportunity as a temptation to pride and decided to remain in Brescia with the community she had formed.
In 1534, she chose 12 of the women who shared her work and established a formal religious community, known as the Company of St. Ursula (now known as the Ursulines, or the Angelines). These sisters dedicated their lives to serving God and others but were not to remove themselves from the world, as cloistered orders do. The sisters would live celibate lives in their own homes.
When she died in 1540, there were 24 different communities of Ursuline sisters, and today these sisters lead educational institutions throughout the world. They were the first religious sisters to land in the New World when they arrived in Canada in 1639. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus, and her image appears in these stained glass windows in the Basilica.
St. Angela Merici, teacher of young women and patron saint of those who are disabled—pray for us!