Jesus mentions the devil a lot: Homily for Thursday, August 1, 2024

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Jesus mentions the devil a lot

It’s interesting in looking at the Gospel, we might be surprised that there are certain themes that are the most prevalent in the Gospel. You might be surprised, for example, I think it’s more than any other word in the Gospel is the word for the devil. Jesus is constantly speaking about the devil, the evil one, the one who burns the fire in Gehenna.

There’s a secondary theme that often comes in and that is to get ready for the end of time, for the day of judgment, that we in fact will have to give an account of our life, to give an account really of the depth and the quality of our love, the depth and quality of our love for Jesus and the depth and quality for the love that God creates for each one of us and for all other people in the world.

But we can take heart because Jeremiah uses an image to remind the people that even though they have wandered far away from God, God has not wandered far from them. He uses a common example, I think we can all even picture it, of a potter molding something out of clay.

And when it doesn’t quite look right or when it isn’t exactly what he means, Jeremiah notices that the potter starts over. That’s kind of what God does with you and me too. When we get off track, when we go away from our God, when we sin and fall short, God invites us to start over by seeking his forgiveness and his mercy.

It can be hard to do that because for so many reasons we might not be aware of the mercy of God. On the one hand, we might not be aware of it because we don’t examine our own lives. On the other hand, we might not be aware of it because we aren’t convinced that we deserve it.

And we would be right, we don’t deserve God’s mercy. God pours out his mercy precisely because he’s God and loves us and cares for us. Let us ask the Lord today to make of us something beautiful and wonderful so that we might love our God more and serve our neighbor more faithfully.

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