October 9, 2011 – Luke 11:14 – 11:54

The strong man parable has always confused me. I understand it, the fact that a stronger person can defeat someone beneath him, but I never understood what that had to do with God. If God is the strongest, is he the one breaking in to Satan’s stronghold because he is weaker. That makes sense, especially with Jesus expelling a demon. I thought it might be that we need to be strong to defend ourselves against Satan, but if we have God and rely on Him, we cannot be defeated because nothing is stronger than God.

The description of the cup, clean on the outside but dirty inside, got me thinking. I wrote a little while ago about Mass and taking it seriously and about dressing appropriately. I would say that there have been times that I didn’t dress appropriately for Mass, but I was still focused and participating well enough. I was a dirty glass on the outside, but clean inside. That may be true, but I think it is hard to maintain. I think if you allow yourself to become in the habit of coming to Mass in shorts and a T-Shirt, you will begin to slip with your focus and you will not take it seriously. If a glass is dirty on the outside, it will usually become dirty on the inside. And even if it does not, people cannot see the inside, they only see the outside. If they see your dirty outside, they may feel it is ok for them to have a dirty outside and their inside may become dirty because of it. Basically, dress appropriately for Mass, even if it doesn’t change your focus, because it will eventually hinder you and you may be hindering others.