“‘…Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over ALL the power of the enemy; and NOTHING shall hurt you.’” (Luke 10: 20, emphasis added).
I recently heard a beautiful story about Saint John Vianney. Saint John Vianney used to hear hundreds of thousands of confessions each year in his little parish in Ares in France. Once, when he was administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation, one of his parishioners rushed into the church to tell him that his bedroom was on fire. Unperturbed, Saint John Vianney, smiled and said, “The grappin ('pitchfork' was his nickname for the devil” is very angry. He couldn't catch the bird, so he has burned the cage. It is a good sign. We will have many sinners this day.” And he sat quietly in the confessional and continued to hear confessions.
You see, Saint John Vianney understood ALL his power – which comes from God – and he also understood that the evil one had no real power over him… He was merely trying to distract him from his work in saving souls.
Saint Padre Pio was another very great Saint. There was a man who had recently died and his sister asked the Saint to intercede for her brother so that his soul could come to visit her in a dream. The woman’s name was Maria Pompilio. That night Maria’s brother visited her in a dream, and he told her that he was in Purgatory, but that Saint Padre Pio had stood before him in front of the Just Judge and asked and that his sentence in Purgatory be reduced from eleven years to just one year. The brother concluded in the dream by telling his sister, “Many mysteries in the life of Padre Pio will be known only in the other world.” The next morning, Maria Pompilio rushed to visit Padre Pio, who saw her from afar and called, “Are you glad now?” “Yes,” she replied, “it seems you are everywhere.” The Saint replied, “What sense has for my being on earth if I can’t go up and down? I know your brother told you that the mystery of my life will be known only in Paradise.”
For Padre Pio also understood that his great power came from God – ALL OF IT!
And I have been reflecting on the Gospel of Saint Luke, which recorded Christ’s words to the disciples…
“The Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come … The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!’ And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.’” (Luke 10:1-12,17-20).
The words that are most poignant to me in this reading are “ALL” and “NOTHING”, “‘…Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over ALL the power of the enemy; and NOTHING shall hurt you.’” (Luke 10: 20, emphasis added).
You see, there are NO EXCEPTIONS in Christ’s words here… ALL power is given as it comes from God, and NOTHING can cause harm to those who wield that power…
For the evil one has no power over me, and can only try to distract me from the fulness of power that God will work through me if I could only submit to His Holy Will…
And reflecting on that today, it occurs to me, that I have a long road to walk before I have enough Grace to really consider ALL of myself the property of an ever-loving God… I have a very long road to walk…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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