The Memorial of Saint Denis and Companions
Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you all the nations will be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not of faith, but, "The man who does them will live by them."
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, In the council of the upright, and in the congregation. The Lord's works are great, Pondered by all those who delight in them.
His work is honor and majesty. His righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
He has given food to those who fear him. He always remembers his covenant. He has shown his people the power of his works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.
But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons." Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I by God's finger cast out demons, then God's Kingdom has come to you.
"When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder.
"He who is not with me is against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters.
The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.' When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
Saint Denis was a third-century bishop of Paris who, along with his companions, was beheaded for refusing to abandon the faith — tradition holds that he then carried his own head two miles while preaching. Whether literal or legendary, the image captures something true: the Gospel keeps moving forward even when the world tries to silence it.
Notice how the readings today circle around a single question — where does real power come from? Paul tells the Galatians that the law, for all its weight and dignity, couldn't ultimately deliver what it promised. Only faith — the kind that Abraham had, the kind that trusts before it sees — opens us to the blessing God always intended. The movement here is from striving to receiving, from earning to inheriting.
Then in Luke, Jesus faces accusers who watch him free someone from darkness and immediately reach for the most cynical explanation available. He casts out demons by the prince of demons. Consider how familiar that impulse is — when we see something genuinely good happen, something that disrupts our comfortable categories, we sometimes look for ways to explain it away rather than be changed by it.
The warning Jesus gives about the swept and empty house is worth sitting with. Removing something harmful from our lives — a habit, a resentment, a pattern of thought — isn't enough on its own. What fills the space matters. Denis and his companions didn't just resist evil; they were filled with something stronger. That's the inheritance Paul is pointing toward: not just freedom from the curse, but the actual presence of the Spirit.
On an ordinary Tuesday in October, that's the invitation — not just to clear out what doesn't belong, but to ask what we're making room for.
What cynical explanation have we been reaching for lately, when something genuinely good has appeared in front of us? Where in our lives have we swept something out, but left the space empty? And what would it look like today to trust before we see?