The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity 2024

“I renounce Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his worships, and his angels, and his inventions, and all things that are under him.” And after his renunciation let him in his consociation say: “And I associate myself to Christ, and believe, and am baptized into one unbegotten Being….”

“I associate myself with Christ.” Disciples of Jesus do not leave the world, but we renounce its prince—the devil—and we renounce its principles. We renounce lies, we renounce lust, we renounce licentiousness. We confess Christ, we practice charity, and we defy the demands of the world to worship the image of the beast....

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Judica Sermon 2022

“You are of your father the devil.” If we want the comforting words of Jesus to apply to us, we must first wrestle with the confrontational ones. “You are of your father the devil.” The words address the entire human race.

The first three Sundays of Lent show Jesus in combat with the devil, first in the wilderness temptations, then in two exorcisms. The fourth Sunday is a kind of interlude, with rose vestments and food in the wilderness. Now the fifth Sunday of Lent holds up a mirror and says, “If you want to know where the devil is busy, take a look at your own life.” …

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