no neutrality here - 27th week friday

          Whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather scatters.

Jesus is telling us that with him we cannot be neutral.  Jesus is telling us that there is no place for neutrality in Christian life.  If we are not with Jesus then we are against Jesus.  If we do not help in gathering the flock, then we are helping in scattering the flock, even if we are merely doing nothing. If we are not doing anything good, then we are actually doing evil, because by not doing anything good we are actually helping the evil one.

          So it is not that easy to say, I have not done anything wrong anyway, because the question which will be asked is, have you done anything good?

          There can be no neutrality and there can be no washing of hands.  Either we do good or we participate in evil.

          Thus we find the continuation of the gospel passage narrating how the devil was driven out from the person.  And after roaming all over the devil came back to the man and found him cleaned and tidied and so he invited 7 other demons worse than itself to live in that person.

          It is not enough that evil is exorcised, it is not enough that evil is driven away. We have to fill it up with something good and not just leave it empty.  It is therefore not enough to just simply stop committing sin.  We have to do something good so that the evil that came out will not come back again.