An invitation

Today’s Gospel passage from Mark vividly portrays the mighty power that radiated from the amazing words of Jesus. Mark says that Jesus held the people spellbound in the synagogue of Capernaum, for his teaching was radically different from what they had been accustomed to.

He not only moved people, but evil spirits as well. They shrieked and instantly fled before him, like birds scampering for safety as people approach.

The people were especially amazed and awed at the way Jesus expels the demons. Other exorcists would rely on a strict magic ritual or incantation and dances handed down by their predecessors, no alteration permitted.

With Jesus, just a word does the job. The evil spirits flee. It was not only personal magnetism and the strength of Jesus’ convictions, which profoundly impressed others, but also the exciting freshness of his inner wisdom.

The people heard a “completely new teaching.” The people in today’s Gospel asked, “What does this mean?” What is the deeper meaning behind Jesus’ power to expel evil spirits – the power that he also gave to his Church?

Jesus answered that question himself saying,“It is … by means of God’s power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.” The deeper meaning behind Jesus’ exorcisms is that the kingdom of Satan, which enslaved people since Adam’s sin, is now giving way to the kingdom of God.

But this raises a question. If Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God more than 2,000 years ago, why is evil still so widespread today? In other words, if Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom in his lifetime, why is Satan’s kingdom still so powerful in our lifetime?

The answer is that the coming of God’s kingdom is not an instant happening, like a flash. It is a gradual process. It is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing movement in history. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God.

But Jesus left us with the task of completing it. That’s why we still pray: “Thy kingdom come.” It is our job to see to it that the kingdom bears the fruit God intended it to bear.

By expelling the demons, Jesus shows us that He has come to destroy the power of Satan. But it does not mean Satan is not putting up a fight. It means that Jesus has given us the grace and the means to triumph with him over Satan.

But this raises another question: Why is God’s kingdom so slow in coming? In other words, why is Satan’s kingdom so slow in dying? The answer is that we are not doing our job as well as we should. We are not doing our job of completing the kingdom as well as we should.

Take, for example: How many of us live out Jesus’ command to love one another as he loves us? Our failure to love others as Jesus loves us extends not only to our enemies and our neighbors, but also to our own family. The reason we fail to love even our family, as we should is really not because of malice on our part, it’s not because we are evil.

More often than not, it’s simply because we are negligent, we are forgetful. We are delinquent in our mission to love. Now, it would be a mistake to think of Satan as operating from outside us –the devil or evil spirit entering into the body of a person.

That is not very often today, unless people give him the opening, like through the “Ouija board,” “spirit of the glass,” or joining the occult and Satan worship.

There are also more subtle ways, for example: There was a very wealthy farmer, who was also the most “kuripot” (stingiest) person.

One day the Holy Spirit worked overtime, and the rich farmer came to realize that he was only the caretaker of his many hectares of land and fat bank accounts. Not long after his conversion there came to his door a poor neighbor,whose house and barn had burned down. He needed food.

The rich farmer decided to give the poor fellow a ham from the smokehouse. On the way to get the ham, the devil whispered to him,“Give him the smallest one you can find.”

The rich man had a struggle with his old stingy spirit, but finally his new generous spirit won out. He picked out the largest ham he could find. “You are a fool,” the devil sneered. But the converted farmer silenced him, “If you don’t stop, I will give him every ham I have.” This is the spiritual principle of  “agere contra” – to act opposite the temptation or suggestion of the evil one.

Fr. David Fleming, explaining the good and evil spirits in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, points out that just as the good spirit may come directly from God and His angels, or from our inner goodness, or from the influence of good company; so, the evil spirit may come from our own selfish and sinful self, or from bad influence, or from the devil himself.

Although there are reported cases of devilish possessions in modern society, these are not many. But in our modern society Satan operates in a more subtle way – although the bottom line is the same – to make wealth, popularity, pride, and power as our gods.

A former mayor of San Fernando town in Camarines Sur, who has won the award of one of the outstanding mayors in the country few yeas ago, refused the offer of thousands of pesos every month just to allow Jueteng to operate in his locality, and on another occasion, he refused to approve a questionable deal, when his signature would mean a million pesos in his pocket.

The evil spirit whispers, “This is your opportunity. Many officials are doing it. What are you in power for? Think of the future of your family.” The good spirit says, “You are a Christian leader. God put you there to serve the people. Gambling destroys the Filipino virtue of “tiagâ” (persevering hard work), and drains the resources of the people.”

So, in spite of the political and social pressure, the mayor says “No” to all these attempts of the evil spirit. This brings us back to - What does the Gospel reading say to us in this church today? Well, each one of us, to some extent, has an unclean spirit in us.

We may have something in us that keeps us from being the kind of person we would like us to be. For example, we may have something in us that keeps us from praying the way we would like to pray.

Or, perhaps we may have something in us that keeps us from loving the way we would like to love – especially the members of our own family.

Or, perhaps we may have something in us that keeps us from being generous, as we would like to be.

For example, we all have a responsibility when it comes to spreading God’s kingdom on earth. Yet how much time, energy, or money do we devote to this?

Just as Jesus drove out the unclean spirit from each man, so he wants to drive out the unclean spirit in us. He wants to free us from whatever is keeping us from being as prayerful, as loving, and as generous as we would like to be. But Jesus can do this for us only if we approach him, if we let him. And how do we do this?

We approach Jesus directly and humbly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

In summary, this is the message of today’s readings. It is an invitation to approach Jesus and to let him drive out from us the unclean spirit that is in us.This is the invitation Jesus extends to each of us in today’s liturgy.

During this whole year, let us make a special effort to accept his invitation. Let Jesus take from our hearts our unclean spirit and replace it with the Holy Spirit!