Daily Reading
First Reading
Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24
You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.
Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Psalm
Psalm 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11
Beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
Within its citadels God
has shown himself a sure defense.
Then the kings assembled,
they came on together.
We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
Your name, O God, like your praise,
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory.
Let Mount Zion be glad,
let the towns of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments.
Gospel Reading
Mark 6:7-13
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, we find Jesus sending out the Twelve on mission and giving them authority over the unclean spirits.
In the sixties and seventies, it was common, even in seminaries, to dismiss such talk as primitive superstition—or perhaps to modernize it and make it a literary device, using symbolic language evocative of the struggle with evil in the abstract. But that approach just does not do justice to the Bible. The biblical authors knew all about the world of fallen or morally compromised spirits.
Imagine a truly wicked person who is also very smart, talented, and enterprising. Now raise that person to a far higher pitch of ontological perfection, and you will have some idea of what a devil is like.
Jesus, through his death and Resurrection, has won victory over these dark forces. And he has entrusted to his Church the means to apply this victory. These are the sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation), the Bible, personal prayer, the Rosary, etc.
Jesus sent out the Twelve to battle dark spirits. He still empowers his Church to do the same. Don’t be reluctant to use the weapons—and the healing balms—that he has given.