Beelzebul Versus Christ, Lies Versus Truth, the Culture of Death Versus Life, Third Monday (II), January 22, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dam Church, Manhattan
Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Votive Mass of Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life
January 22, 2024
2 Sam 5:1-7.10, Ps 89, Mk 3:22-30

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today the Church in the United States marks the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, a day of prayer and fasting, since, as Jesus said in the Gospel, some demons are expunged only by prayer and fasting. The day was chosen because 51 years ago today the Supreme Court handed down its disgraceful Roe v. Wade decision that made possible the slaughter of close to 65 million children in the womb in our country since. While those who support the dignity and life of unborn children rejoice that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June 2022, the fact is that abortion is still legal in many states in our country, including New York, and the number of abortions every year has actually gone up, not down, since Dobbs. The Biden Administration has announced steps to try to force hospitals to perform certain abortions nationwide, including in states that have restricted or banned abortion, and announced that Vice-President Kamala Harris will now be crisscrossing the country to promote abortion. Various states have abortion-related referenda on the ballots this year. It’s a time for prayer and fasting and the Catholic Church in the United States together convenes to pray. Today’s readings help us to gain an important perspective with regard to the evil of abortion and what’s needed in response to it.
• In the Gospel, Jesus is accused of exorcising demons by the power of Beelzebul, the Prince of Demons. The scribes who had come from Jerusalem on foot to Galilee, witnessing Jesus’ exorcisms, couldn’t deny that the exorcisms were occurring, that possessed people were being liberated, that the demons themselves were hailing Jesus as the “Holy One of God.” They couldn’t deny the facts. But they could try to change their interpretation. Because they had already prejudged Jesus not to be the type of Messiah they were looking for, because he didn’t follow their own man-made prescriptions with regard to the Sabbath, to fasting and to other parts of the fence they had drawn around the Mosaic law, they concluded that since they couldn’t fathom he could be of God, then he had to be of the devil. That’s why they said that Jesus himself was “possessed by Beelzebul” and exorcised not by God’s power but by the power of the “prince of demons.” It was an absurd accusation and Jesus pointed how ridiculous it was in some brief metaphors. “How can Satan drive out Satan?,” he said. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself,  that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.” In other words, the only way he could plunder Satan’s house (the only way he could remove a possessed man from Satan’s dominion) and drive him out of that house is if he had bound up Satan first. If a possessed man — as they were claiming Jesus to be — were battling against the prince of demons and casting demons out from those whom the demons had occupied, then Satan’s kingdom would be defeated.
• We learn a few things here relevant to the effort to protect, defend, reverence and welcome every human life.
• First we can recognize the work of the devil, who very much exists, in the whole industry of abortion. We can see the “father of lies” underneath all the lies, deception and mendacious talking points we witness from the abortion industry and its defenders. We can see how the devil wants to use those euphemisms — like “My Body, My Choice,” like “Freedom to Decide” — not only to end individual lives of those made in God’s image and likeness who are smaller, weaker, more vulnerable and more dependent, but also to continue to corrupt those involved in making abortions happen as well as to divide families, our country, and even the Church. President Abraham Lincoln would famously cite Jesus’ words to keep the United States united during the time leading up to the Civil War because of the tolerance for the evil of slavery. Tolerance for the evil of abortion polarizes our country today similar to the way slavery did in the 19th century. How can there be union when some citizens think it’s fine to kill other human beings and others are trying to save their lives? How can there be union when the pro-abortion movement pits mothers against their own children? How can there be respect for others when those who are bigger, stronger, and more politically connected can make the decision to end the lives of those smaller, weaker and totally vulnerable? As St. Teresa of Calcutta said at Harvard back in 1982, when there is no inalienable right to life then all other rights are built on sand. There can be no national unity when there is a division so great.
• The second thing we see in today’s Gospel is about forgiveness. Jesus talks about the unforgivable sin.  “Amen, I say to you,” he said, using the formula for a solemn oath: “all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” Jesus, here, is not talking about the sin of abortion. As horrible as it is, it can certainly be forgiven. I have been privileged as a priest to be able to see God’s mercy at work healing such sins many times over. The sin of abortion can be forgiven and the Church encourages and summons those who have sinned in this way to come with repentance and trust to receive God’s mercy. But what is the sin that cannot be forgiven? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and why can’t it be forgiven? Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, in general, is impenitence, but it begins with calling something evil good or good evil. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and one blasphemes against him whenever one deliberately or with vincible ignorance calls a lie a truth or a truth a lie. Jesus reminded the scribes of this sin because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit,” claiming he was possessed as he was doing God’s work. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss” (CCC 1864). The reason why blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable is not because God doesn’t want to forgive but because the sinner won’t open up to receive mercy, either because he doesn’t believe he needs it, or because she doesn’t believe God will forgive, or because he doesn’t want to come to receive it in the way God has intended. When someone is convinced that evil is good and a lie is true, the person will not think he or she is in need of forgiveness. When someone is calling Jesus evil and possessed, that person is generally not going to come to ask Jesus for mercy. When someone has convinced himself that abortion is a beautiful act of freedom that should be celebrated, they’re not at the same time going to repent of it. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not a curse against the third Person of the Trinity but a hard-hearted refusal to be opened by him to the truth of things and to come to receive the forgiveness that “God the Father of mercies through the death and resurrection of his Son has … poured out the Holy Spirit” to accomplish. And part of this day of prayer and fasting is to pray in reparation for those who are hardened against God’s mercy, who want to pretend as if abortion, rather than being one of the greatest sins, is actually quasi-sacramental and a beautiful expression of woman’s freedom and human rights; praying for those who recognize that they and our culture have blood on their hands but refuse to come to be reconciled, praying for those who think that because they’ve committed an abortion, not even God can forgive them.
• The third thing we learn from the Gospel today is that just as Jesus was calumniated as an agent of the devil, so, too, we will be falsely accused of being against women’s rights, or against progress, or haters, or other calumnies. Jesus tells us in the Beatitudes that blessed are we when we’re persecuted, hated and spoken of falsely because of him because our reward in heaven will be great. The suffering we experience in defending and promoting the right to life, for doing good and speaking up and working for women and their children, is part of the prayer we can offer in reparation for this great sin and crime that cries out to heaven.
• In the first reading and the psalm we find reasons for hope and courage and light for the path ahead.
• In the Psalm, we see how God spoke to David, his anointed one, in anticipation of so many battles he would fight. In prayer, he called him a champion, placed a crown on him, and anointed him as a sign that he was with him with his faithfulness and mercy, making him strong. The same Lord is with us. The Lord who strengthened David and gave him the courage to battle against Goliath when Saul and all the Israelites were afraid will be with us. That fills us with confidence. We are not alone.
• And in the first reading, we see in David the importance of leadership and particularly a leadership that unites. The elders of the tribes of Israel come to David in Hebron, where he was King of Judah, and asked him to shepherd the children of Israel, too. (Judah is the southern part of the Holy Land, Israel the northern, and they were inhabited by different tribes from among the descendants of Jacob). David, who was a uniter rather than a divider, agreed and ruled over both kingdoms for the next 33 years. It’s an image of what’s supposed to happen with the “son of David,” Christ, who came so that we might all be one, as he and the Father are one, something we continue to pray for on this fifth day of the Octave of Prayer for Christian unity. The pro-life movement needs leaders, and not just politicians and judges, who can bring people together to work to ensure that every human life is protected in law and welcomed with love. It needs cultural leaders, leaders on the front lines, compassionate and courageous women and men who care for vulnerable women and help them choose life. The Lord wants us all, in some way, to be among those leaders, leaders who don’t “divide and conquer” but “unite to conquer,” and today we pray and fast for such leaders to step forward.
• The most important part of this day of prayer and fasting is the Mass, which is the ultimate prayer and the goal of our Eucharistic fast. It’s here we come to ask the same Lord who strengthened David to strengthen us with his outstretched hand and arm. Jesus is indeed the “Stronger man” who has defeated the devil and divided his spoils. He is the leader who seeks to unite us. He is the one who by his life, death and resurrection took away the sins of the world, including the sins of abortion and the sins that lead to it. He is the one who sends the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, to help us put to death life according to the flesh that leads to the culture of death and to live according to the Spirit, which produces the fruit of the culture of life. As we prepare to receive him, we give him thanks for having defeated the devil, and we ask him to embolden us to persevere in that victory and announce it to others, conscious that his mercy and his faithfulness shall be with us always.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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