Daily Catholic Lectio
Mon, 22 January 2024
Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
2 Sam 5:1-7, 10. Mark 3:22-30
Tying up the strong man
Judgements are unavoidable. According to behavioural psychology, every speech of ours could be a judgement: ‘this watch is lovely,’ ‘the day is beautiful,’ ‘you are looking good,’ ‘this colour suits you.’ Whatever we say about ourselves and others could be a judgement. What we hear from others are their judgements.
Positive judgements or criticisms make us grow; negative judgements or criticisms frustrate us.
In the first reading, David experiences a negative judgement or criticism. When David was thirty, he became the King of Israel. When he comes from Hebron to Jerusalem to take possession of his kingdom, the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, speak against David, saying, “You cannot enter here; the blind and the lame will drive you away!”
Either they were ignorant of David’s anointment and victory against the Philistines, or they must have overlooked them in order to despise David for his youth.
In the gospel reading, the scribes who had come from Jerusalem say, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘By the prince of demons, he drives out demons.’ They take offence at Jesus.
The scribes in Jesus’ time would preach on the authority of the school to which they belonged or the Rabbi under whose feet they sat and learned the Law. And they would not (and could not) heal diseases and drive out demons. But Jesus preaches on his own authority, which comes from his sonship, and his preaching is accompanied by miracles such as healing the sick and exorcism.
David and Jesus, the young men in their thirties, face rejection. They handle rejections and criticisms in a very positive way.
‘They tie the strong man’
Metaphorically, Jesus says, “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.”
When we tie a strong man, he loses his strength.
David wins over the Jebusites with this courage.
Jesus wins over the Scribes by partially revealing his identity and origin.
What are the lessons for us?
(a) When I see someone do well or perform well, what is my response to that person? Do I appreciate him or her? Do I pass judgement on what he or she does?
(b) If I need to time the strong man, I must outdo him in strength: discernment about the capacity of self and the enemy; patient waiting; using the right instruments; swiftness in action; and winning.
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“But the very dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body and forbid it to serve the evil inclinations of his heart.” (‘Gaudium et Spes,’ Church in the Modern World, n. 14. Jubilee A. D. 2025, bite 14).
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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