The Spirit and the satan!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 16, 2023: Genesis 9:1-13; Mark 8:27-33

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us... for the Lord has created us in God's own image. We bear the name of God. The first reading today reiterates the fact in many ways - saying God created everything for the human beings, God gave human beings an ascendancy over the rest of the creatures and explicitly stating once again God created human beings in God's image, infused with the Spirit of God!

In the Gospel, we come across Peter, who is seen to be filled with that Spirit of God and he rightly points out who Jesus was- the Son of God. Jesus observes that the right response from Peter, was because of the wisdom and illumination from the Spirit; Yes, we possess the Spirit of the Lord within us and we have the great possibility of illumination and wisdom.

That is not all! There is a danger we are warned about: the fact that we need to be aware of - that the Satan is all the time lurching around the corner waiting for a time to pounce on us and draw us as far away as it could, from the Spirit who resides within us. That is what happens to Peter - one moment he is filled with the Spirit and the very next moment he thinks and behaves under the influence o the satan. This is a constant struggle within us, and we need to beware of it. 

Is it not true that right from the first moment of the creation this enmity is on? But it all depends on me, it depends on where I belong, to whom I belong - the Spirit or the Satan: whose side am I on?