FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
MARCH 16, 2023
THIRD THURSDAY OF LENT
WORD of the DAY
Jesus was driving out a demon
that was mute,
and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.” … Whoever is not with me is against me,
and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11: 14-15/23)
“How shall I live this Word? 
Jesus frees the man from the devil and the man begins to speak, to express the gift that he is. Satan with his lie deprived us of the possibility of speaking with God and with our brothers and sisters; he deprived us of the possibility of being able to express ourselves by recognizing good and evil. Indeed, he generated confusion in our hearts making us believe evil is good and good is evil. Now Jesus frees us, declaring that with Him Satan is finished, he is divided in himself. The Spirit, the finger of God, acts with Him for human salvation and rebuilds in us the face of His Son. Only by remaining with Him, being with Him, can we leave the dominion of the enemy, day by day, moment by moment; only with Jesus.
Help us Lord, hold us close to You and give us the strength to remain close to You, to fight the pitfalls of the enemy who wants to snatch us from You. Everything is Your gift, even wanting this!
The Voice of Pope Francis Morning Meditation, Friday 1 June 2018
“Today there is a force, I would say a fierceness against man and woman, because otherwise this growing wave of destruction of the human being cannot be explained.” Francis observes that what the devil wants is precisely “the destruction of dignity” and for this reason, he persecutes to destroy humanity… “Today, in the world, not only Christians are persecuted; but man and woman as such, through war, hunger, slavery because the father of all persecution does not tolerate that they are the image and likeness of God. And he attacks and destroys that image. It is not easy to understand this; it takes a lot of prayer to understand this.
E-mail: srmterzo@gmail.com Website: www.sanbiagio.org info@sanbiagio.org Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com Comment by Sr. Monica Gianoli, FMA
