Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. The seventy-two disciples in today’s Gospel (Luke 10:17–24) are rightly amazed at the power that Jesus has given them over unclean spirits. It is not normal for human beings to have authority over angelic beings; yet because of Jesus’s name, the spirits obey mere mortals.
Through the power of the Lord’s name, we too share in his authority, since at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil 2:10). We have been given this name—and the name of Christian—at our Baptism; hence we have nothing to fear from Satan or his minions. But lest we grow proud, Jesus gives the seventy-two—and us—this injunction: Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
This is the true treasure we receive as Christians: not power, but the abiding knowledge and experience of God’s love, for by the work of the Spirit, our names are now inscribed in the Father’s heart through our incorporation in his Son.
Today, let us wonder with amazement at this love that God has for us, that our names are written in heaven, setting aside all other gifts that might distract us from this surpassing grace.