He drives out demons

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3:22-30.
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, "How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."


Commentary of the day : Origen
« He drives out demons»

Acknowledge this: «a new king, a king of Egypt, has come to power» in you. He is the one who imposes forced labor on you and makes you produce bricks and mortar for him. He is the one who sets taskmasters and overseers over you, who forces you on to field work with whip and lash, constraining you to build his cities. It is he who urges you to traverse the world over, stirring up land and seas to satisfy his desires...

This king of Egypt knows well that war is at hand. He forsees the coming of him who can «strip his principalities and powers, bravely triumphing over them and nailing them to the wood of the cross»... He senses that the hour of the destruction of his people is near. And so he declares: «The people of Israel is more powerful than we ourselves!» Would that he could say the same of us and that we might know ourselves more powerful than he! In what way will he sense this? If I do not accept the evil thoughts and depraved lusts he arouses in me; if I repulse his «fire-tipped arrows with the shield of faith»; if, whenever he suggests something to my soul, I say to him, calling Christ my Lord to mind: «Get away, Satan. It is written: 'The Lord, your God, you shall worship and him alone shall you serve»...

For he comes, the Lord Jesus..., to bring to submission the «principalities, dominions and powers», to submit the children of Israel to the rage of their enemies..., to teach us once again to see God in spirit, to abandon Pharaoh's works, to leave the land of Egypt, to renounce the barbaric customs of the Egyptians, «to put away the old self with its works and put on the new self, created in God's way,» «being renewed day by day» in the image of him who created us, Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.