Application. Each sin you commit deserves a punishment which you must suffer either here or in Purgatory. Have you ever thought seriously about this? Do you not sometimes say to yourself: “Oh, such and such a sin will hurt no one?” Ah, but it will hurt your own soul, and draw down punishment on you! Do some voluntary penance and guard more carefully against sin for the future.
God works day and night, and every moment, for your good. And you do not thank Him! You do not love Him at all, or, at least, very little!
Chapter XXVII.
SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.— MARY DECLARED BLESSED.
[Mat. 9, 32 — 34; 12, 22 — 42. Mark 3, 22—35. Luke 11, 14 — 32.]
WHEN the days of the Feast were over, Jesus went back again into Galilee preaching, and doing good as He passed along. One day there was brought to Him a man, blind and dumb[1], who was possessed by the devil. Jesus cured him, and the man spoke and saw. The multitude who witnessed this miracle said: “Is not this the son of David?”[2] For never had the like been seen in Israel.
Hearing this, the Pharisees said: “This man casteth out devils by Beelzebub[3], the prince of the devils.” But Jesus answered: “How can Satan[4] cast out Satan? If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. But if Satan rise up
- ↑ Blind and dumb. Being possessed by the devil, he could neither seenor speak.
- ↑ The Son of David. The promised descendant of David, the Messias (Compare Old Test. LV, and New Test. II: “The Lord God shall give to Him the throne of David His father.") This miracle made a great impression on the people, so much so that it quite inclined them to believe that Jesus was the Messias. This angered the Pharisees, and in order to destroy the people’s growing faith, they advanced the theory that it was by the help of the devil himself that He had worked the miracle.
- ↑ By Beelzebub. That Jesus drove out devils they could not deny; but as they absolutely refused to recognize our Lord’s divine power, they were forced to maintain that He was in league with the prince of the devils, by whose aid the devils were cast out!
- ↑ How can Satan. Jesus, knowing that they spoke not from conviction, but from sheer malice, proceeds to show: 1) the self-contradiction of their malicious interpretation; 2) that even so they must confess that Satan’s kingdom is coming to an end and that the kingdom of God has come upon them.
