Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 8, 2021Readings (Click here)
Reading I: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 9:2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9
Gospel: Lk 11:15-26
Reading I: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 9:2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9
Gospel: Lk 11:15-26
The Prophet Joel, in our first reading, called on the priests to be the first to do penance, to fast and to lament before they call others, the elders and the assembly, to do the same. He said: "Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God!" "Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, Into the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD!" They need to do penance, to fast and to lament and to come and fill the house of God with offering and libation to move God to mercy as they face the "day of the Lord" that comes with ruin, "darkness and gloom." These are all meant to make people aware of the Lord's grandeur and power in order to effect a transformation of heart. Only God can admonish and chastise people and so deliver them from their suffering.
In our Gospel, Jesus drove out demons by the finger of God declaring that the day of the Lord, the Kingdom of God has come. Through this, Jesus manifested God’s powerful presence among His people as He liberated them from the evil one, no matter how strong it may be.
We can only behold this power of God if we gather with Jesus through prayer and fasting as in Mark 9:29, by lamenting our sins and doing penance as our expression of transformation of heart. It is only then that we become stronger than the evil effects of this pandemic, stronger to face the ruin, darkness and gloom. As the Prophet Joel exhorts us, we, as priests and religious, ought to start it with ourselves, before we admonish others to do the same.
Fr. Joel R. Lasutaz, SSS
Image credit: foundationforpriests.org