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Sabato 19 Ottobre 2024

Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 12:8-12

To substitute

By divine order, Lucifer cannot interfere with the functioning of the laws of the Spirit, but he can certainly disturb the activity of natural laws to make this planet the least livable place possible. As he cannot do it directly, he must accomplish his destructive action through man's choices.  It is only by instigating man into manipulating and violating the laws of nature that Satan can exercise destructive power over nature and life and cause damage to the planet and humanity. Through his direct offspring and followers, which are servants of the established power, Satan is launching his final attack on humanity to subdue and subjugate it until it is destroyed. That is why he is utilizing the tools that man created to cure humanity's evils and to point it towards a bright progress: law, economics, politics, science and mass communication. In this generation, through his followers who have entered all social structures and political organizations, Satan is controlling all of human life and is manipulating it at his discretion, destroying any chance of happiness and well-being for the people. Banks, economic market, armies, politics, education, culture, means of communication, religions, medicine, pharmacology, scientific research, criminal organizations, laws: all of it is in his hands. If this were not true, Satan would not be able to boast about being a pure, angelical, intelligent spirit, with superior knowledge and extraordinary potential that God granted him and that God allowed him to keep even after his rebellion. Believing that the suffering, humiliation, misery and death that this generation is facing are chance events is supreme stupidity; believing that it is a coincidence is foolish; believing that it is an accidental is idiocy. The evil that is oppressing man is the outcome of a specific job, a precise project, a well calculated scheme, a specific plan. It is worthwhile remembering that Satan neither strikes nor harms humanity with his own energies; rather he uses those of other human beings. Satan is not controlling the world and he is not leading it to the threshold of the abyss because he is stronger than man, instead through their choices men and women of this generation  have made him stronger and invincible. Every act of revenge, every moment of anger, every jealousy, ambition, greed, every violence, cruelty, injustice, every choice  to attain one's own benefit rather than that of the community makes Satan and his offspring stronger and more invincible. Every act of compassion, love, trust, generosity, sharing, mercy, every choice made that is respectful of life and of human dignity, every choice made for man's  true well-being and  happiness  makes Satan and his offspring weaker and more vulnerable. Jesus clearly explained it, but men and women still have not understood or acknowledged it: Satan cannot be defeated through fighting, but rather through substitution.
In order to defeat Satan in one's mind, fighting him will get us nowhere, but substituting him is extraordinarily effective. In order to chase Satan out of one' s heart and mind there is no other way than to substitute him in one's heart and mind with God. A thought of anger cannot be defeated once it has been triggered and it overwhelms the heart, it can only be substituted by a thought of love and understanding. Violence cannot be stopped without creating more violence, a war cannot be stopped without causing another one. Violence can be substituted by choices and acts of peace and of dialogue, war can be substituted by the search for true well-being for all and by sharing all resources for everyone's happiness. Satan must not be won, he must be substituted. Evil must not be fought; it must be substituted with good, this is Jesus' way, the heart of the Gospel. Jesus never says to pull up the weeds, but rather to continue planting good wheat. This is the time of the choice, of the final choice, all men and women of this generation are now called to choose if to recognize as masters of their life the ghosts of their own religions, or to recognize as the only Lord, Lord Jesus, the King of the universe and to bow to Him. All men and women of this generation must choose to either rely upon the cruelly theatrical script of politics or ideologies or upon the procedures for happiness contained on the Word of life of our Lord. All men and women of this generation must choose either to put, because of fear and terror, their life in the hands of the rapacious wolves of the power and of the system, or to put it, because of love, in the hands of God and of His providence. All men and women of this generation must choose who they will serve: separation or unity, money or God, success or a holy service,  satanic globalization or a life full of well-being.
This is the time to choose, a powerful and difficult time, during which every man must take a stand, not from a devotional or religious point of view, but from an existential, intellectual and vital one. He/she who acknowledges Jesus is not acknowledging a religion but a way of Life, the Truth of Life, the life of Life. Jesus says: I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. This is the choice and it is not a religious choice, it is instead the choice to serve human power or the Lord of Life.
Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven. He/she who in the name of prejudice and personal interests will not acknowledge Jesus even when in face of evidence of his Lordship, will commit a sin against evidence, against the Spirit, and there is no forgiveness for this sin.
When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say. Choosing to serve Jesus and his Gospel will mean standing up to the established power, becoming dissidents, heretics, enemies of the State, liable to persecution, conviction, prison, violence. Jesus asks to choose without fear, He will take care of  all those who choose Him and decide to bow only in His presence.