Word of the day

A reading from the First Letter to the Thessalonians
1 Thes 5:1-6, 9-11

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well
that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.
When people are saying, “Peace and security,”
then sudden disaster comes upon them,
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do,
but let us stay alert and sober.
For God did not destine us for wrath,
but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep
we may live together with him.
Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up,
as indeed you do.

From the Gospel according to Luke
Lk 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

This is the truth; this is the reality that each of us feels when we approach Jesus. The impure spirits try to prevent it; they make war on us. A Christian life without temptations is not Christian: it is ideological, it is gnostic, but it is not Christian. When the Father draws people to Jesus, there is another who pulls in an opposite way and makes war in you! Let's think about what our heart is like: do I feel this struggle in my heart? Between comfort or service to others, between having a little fun or praying and worshiping the Father, between one thing and another. Do I feel the struggle? The desire to do good versus something that stops me? Let each of us search our hearts for how the situation is going there. And let us ask the Lord to be Christians who can discern what is going on in our own hearts and choose well the path to which the Father draws us to Jesus. (Homily, Santa Marta, 19 January 2017)