Poor God, how often He is blamed for all the suffering in the world!

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. – Isaiah: (Old Testament Prophet - 8th Century BC)

Gospel Text: (MT 9:32-38)
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Instead of being appreciative of the good work Jesus is doing by getting rid of the demons, the Pharisees in today’s gospel accuse him of being in cahoots with the demons. They say the demons listen and obey him because he is a demon, maybe king of the demons to have such control over demons. But this is ridiculous.

Adding evil to evil only adds to the evil – it does not take it away. Adding darkness to darkness makes it darker; it takes light to dispel darkness, just as it takes good to dispel evil. The demons would be strengthened by more demons, not dispelled by them.

A house divided cannot stand. Satan would not try to get rid of the demons. That would be counter to his intentions.

Jesus drives out demons for good, by good, like lighting the darkness. And these people have to pick a side, just as we do this very day. Do they choose goodness and light and recognize that evil is dispelled by good, or do they choose to see evil and strengthen the evil. They can’t do both, and they can’t stay in the middle. Jesus says whoever is not for me is against me. He is doing good work, but the people are trying to make his good work into something evil. Does this sound familiar? Just open the newspaper today or watch the news and the same sort of thing seems to happen over and over again.

The truth of the matter is evil begets more evil, and only good can overcome it and drive it out.