On the day of 10 October

Daniel Comboni: the son of poor gardeners who became the first Catholic Bishop of Central Africa, and one of the great missionaries in the Church's history.

**Saint/Feast of the day segment copied from the Vatican's website today.

Reading 1: Galatians 3:7-14

Let me just reiterate how difficult the letters are for me. I don't know why, but I resist reading them as much as I can, and the words just dance around in front of me. So, if I get this wrong, I'm not surprised.

So, I think that Paul is talking about two things here. First, he is reminding everyone that the spirit of God's law is much more important than any nit-picky interpretation of the law. Jesus liked to talk about how much more important the spirit of the law was than the letter, as well. Second, Paul wants all of the gentile Galatians to know that Christ died so that they could be saved, even as gentiles, even without becoming Jewish. The footnotes indicate that the Jewish Christians wanted the gentiles to become circumcised and observe Jewish law. Paul is telling them that they just need to follow the spirit of the law, and save themselves the knife. Right? Maybe?

Gospel: Luke 11:15-26

So, I looked in the footnotes, and they saint NOTHING about the end of this passage. It leaves this whole "the demon will come back with his pals and inhabit the same person and throw a big nasty party in the cleaned out body" issue alone. This is the most interesting part of the reading for me. Yes, I recognize that in this reading, Jesus is revealing who he is, and also telling people that the other real Jewish exorcists are gonna get them. (The footnotes read: Your own people: the Greek reads "your sons." Other Jewish exorcists (see Acts 19:13-20), who recognize that the power of God is active in the exorcism, would themselves convict the accusers of Jesus. See also the note on Matthew 12:27.) I also understand that I frequently miss the point. So, If anyone has a better understanding of this passage than me, please let me know.