31 January 2022
Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest
Bizarre. That’s the word that keeps popping up while reading today’s Gospel. Jesus finds a possessed man. There is a dialogue that sounds more like a fight that ensues. In it, Jesus reveals the reason for his mission on earth. He came to seek, identify and conquer evil. Years later, as he was being nailed to the cross, evil seemed to have won the battle. But from the tomb he rose up the victor.
I am invited now to join with him in recognizing and conquering the evil in my own life and in the world in which I live, where it seems to have gained the upper hand. Prayer tells me how to do so.
I must not be like the people who begged Christ to leave them, but rather I must ask him to draw me even closer to himself so that I hear his voice telling me what his will is for me, and how, with the confidence, I can put it into action. I pray with the psalmist in today’s Mass: “Lord, many are my adversaries! Lord, rise up and save me.”
Today is the feast of St. John Bosco; the patron of youth. There is no greater group in our country today that has greater need of prayers. So, my prayer today is: Is it possible for me to participate more in the Eucharist and pray that the Lord send more John Boscos to defend our youth from the all-pervasive diabolic temptations that surround them?