"Have you come to destroy us?"

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1:21-28. Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. Commentary of the day : Catechism of the Catholic Church "Have you come to destroy us?" «But deliver us from evil»: in this petition of the Lord's Prayer, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ. "A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies," (Jn 8,44) Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world» (Rv 12,9). Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death" (EP IV). Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one" (1Jn 5,18-19)... Victory over the "prince of this world" (Jn 14,30) was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out" (Jn 12,31). "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death... "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring" (Rv 12,13.17). Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," (Rv 22,17.20) since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One. When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rv 1,18.8).