Your names are written in heaven

Bar 4,5-12.27-29; Ps 68; Lk 10,17-24
5 OCTOBER

In the Words of Jesus there is never contradiction or opposition or denial or contrast between one Word and another. Sometimes the literary form could be different. But the essence is always one. Today Jesus says to his disciples: “But do not rejoice because the demons submit to you; rejoice rather because your names are written in the heavens.” Why should not knowing that demons submit themselves, that they are cast out by us, be a reason for joy? The Gospel according to Matthew offers us the motivations. Because driving out demons does not open the doors of Paradise for us. We can also drive away billions of demons, but the doors will remain closed.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined” (Mt 7,13-27).

Only obedience to every Word that has come out of the mouth of Jesus writes the names in heaven. Whoever observes the whole Sermon on the Mount certainly has written his name in the heavens. However, he must worry about always obeying the Word of Jesus. If he falls into sin, his name is immediately taken away and man remains without eternal life. Fidelity to the Word of the Lord must be without interruption. If one comes out of the Gospel, he comes out of heaven. We return to the Gospel, we return to heaven. Care must be taken not to play getting out and entering, you could exit without entering.

The seventy (-two) returned rejoicing, and said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” At that very moment he rejoiced (in) the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

If the Apostles cast out demons and must not rejoice, because this work does not give them the right to go to Heaven, what would the Lord say to us today that we have left all the devils of hell free, without opposing them in any way, indeed declaring that the name of every man who is on earth is already written in the heavens? Evidently some divergence between the Word of Christ Jesus and that of his disciples exists. Since I believe with convinced faith that only the one of Jesus is the word of eternal life, I reject all other words. But I will allow only one of them to occupy my mind. They are words of Satan with which he uses to deceive the disciples of Jesus and through them the whole world. The mercy preached by Satan and his slaves is infinitely different than the mercy preached by Christ Jesus and his martyrs. That of Satan is for damnation. That of Jesus is for eternal salvation.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints make Christians preachers only of the mercy of Jesus.