Mass Readings for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Deuteronomy 18.15-20 Psalm 95.1-2, 6-9 1 Corinthians 7.32-35 Mark 1.21-28
We hear about Jesus’ confronting demons in the gospel today. How strange a world it was. I mean, most Catholics to a greater or lesser degree can admit the possibility, even the reality of the demonic, but to be in a world where the possessed are encountered in the way we see in this story of Jesus teaching in the synagogue, seems unimaginable. We don’t see this here in church, people falling over, writhing on the floor as the Eucharist is consecrated, the demons protesting this incarnation of Christ in the blessed sacrament. Yet, I don’t think it far-fetched to look at what’s going on in the world today and wonder if, indeed, a great many are possessed. Possessed by the spirits of our age that motivate them toward all kinds of strange behaviors, or to advocacy for socially-destructive changes to our communities. And insofar as we see real evil arising as a consequence of these behaviors, and changes in our society, could they not be demonic? Are these the demons of our times?
It was during my first go-round in seminary, that is, in preparing to be ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada, that I came into contact with members of the Pentecostal community in a serious way; that is, where you discuss theology – I mean we all have bible studies, and music ministries, but we rarely ever dig into just what are the real and important differences, and our respective view of the world and Christ’s mission in it. There were a couple of that community’s ordained ministers taking courses at Saint Paul University in Ottawa while I was studying there, and we had some classes together.
One Monday morning I went to the cafeteria for coffee, and there was one of my Pentecostal acquaintances looking quite exhausted and in even greater need of caffeine. I went and sat down across from him, curious to know why he looked so spent.
I asked, “how was your weekend?”
Well, he tells me he and fellow ministers were very busy Saturday night and all through Sunday casting out demons. That was said in all seriousness, and in obvious exhaustion.
I remember him describing the battle, and in one instance, he told me, they cast out three demons from this one lady, and thought they were done. But you know, he said to me, there were still two more in there.
Look, I grew up Anglican, you know, the church Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth was so devoted to. Demon possession was scarcely part of my experience in that ecclesial community. We had the lesser horror of soggy finger sandwiches and weak tea after Sunday service. So, you know where I was coming from as I listened with a mix of sympathy and skepticism.
Not that I didn’t think that what they were dealing with something unreal, but rather, from my inescapable modern frame of mind, I was having difficulty understanding what actually happened. Was this proof of spiritual warfare? What is a demon, anyway? Is it just like that famous movie, The Exorcist?
For me, and I’m sure for a great many of us, the demon is more a matter of psychological and neurological phenomena with physical manifestations understood in religious terms. So, we can speak of addictions as being demons. There’s “demon liquor”, and the alcoholic can feel very much possessed by that real and urgent desire that compels him to act against his own best interest, to compromise health, social and family connection, and work. The battle is waged both in the person’s thinking, but even beyond it, in his brain chemistry.
And try and take the bottle away from a drunkard in his cups and you might see him react with violence, and anger, with a strength and vehemence that can seem supernatural and so, terrifying.
And this is what was being described to me that morning over coffee; people in pain, screaming, lashing out, as this minister and his colleagues, prayed that the demons depart – but no one was drunk. And I’m thinking this is bizarre.
And then we come to today, decades later. We’ve seen them on the internet, videos of people at protests sputtering with rage, videos of individuals on TikTok speaking their bizarre “truths” their eyes quite uncanny. Perhaps some of you have had personal encounters as I have. A person takes exception to something I’ve said, or just a question I’ve raised, or that I mentioned a subject held to be out of bounds for anyone not directly of a particular community.
There is no dialogue, no conversation, no reasoning. There is certainly no consideration, no humanity in such encounters. There is coldness, but for the eyes that are aflame with hatred. Offering any word contrary to their understanding, any fact that contradicts their conception of reality, and it causes them pain from which they lash out; speak to them as one who is genuine in concern for them, even as we may disagree, that is rejected, and regarded as a ploy, a trick, a hypocrisy, a further attack as violent as if you came after them with a knife or a club. To resist them, question them, even care for them in any other terms than what they deem is acceptable is a threat to their very being, and they respond accordingly, and not uncommonly either with the threat of violence or violence itself. Be the face of Christ, and one is accused of coming to destroy them. And I guess, they are correct in that.
So, they are possessed. What is it to you and I?
Well, it is a danger.
We can think in terms of a family; consider that story of The Exorcist, written by Peter Blatty, based upon his extensive research. Have that sort of thing, and there is simply not going to be a peaceful meal at the family dinner table Sunday night. And those who have experienced this in less “demonic” terms, have seen how difficult family life has been made when a member is seized by something that makes them a hostile and antagonistic presence.
Thinking about the 1st century, and the people Jesus came to heal and to exorcise, the possessed were frightening, but also disruptive of community. In the famous story of the Gerasene demoniac, the man possessed by a legion of demons was a threat to community safety, attacking people who came near the cemetery where he lived.
Now then, and with many now, such as my Pentecostal acquaintances, they understand demons to be discrete beings, like angels. They are otherworldly individuals, but the idea of the demon originally had a vaguer conception. That is, it was a supernatural power or force. As with the Holy Spirit that we conceive of as personal in one sense, but as a force sent by God to affect his will, the demon is something that we sense has a personality, but it’s not a matter of it always being a person, like Beelzebub. Rather, it is more like that famous demon that Jesus encounters and who gives the name “Legion” because that demon actually contains multitudes.
And if we look at the roots of the very word demon, they are quite ancient, and we can trace them back through Greek and into distant Indo-European languages, and we find that demon or daemon, has a curious duel meaning.
A demon is both a “provider” and a “divider.”
And that is not without significance. For we understand that in biblical thinking, the demon who comes to a person cannot seize them without cooperation, and they are welcomed naively because of what that spirit gives to the person. So, like the addict, there is something pleasing and that fulfils either a real or perceived need they get, and continue to receive even as the person is progressively destroyed; it is really more the possessed than the possessor who resists the exorcism of Christ.
And, of course, the demon divides, separates us from each other and from the love of God, erases our humanity and makes of us all objects, mere things to be used. Consider the contempt that communist leaders Lenin and Stalin had for people as individuals, as communities – possessed as they were. They callously destroyed them, and in case of some of Communist Russia’s leadership, in their intentional cruelty, did so as a demon in the biblical mold would. And we ought to remember how these revolutionaries, possessed by their ideology, promising paradise to people, delivering only misery, despised the Church. But even more disturbingly, how so many of the oppressed, the terrorized of the Soviet Union wept when their beloved dictator died; and how it took decades to release people from their love and devotion to the monstrosity that was Josef Stalin.
So, today we the Church, the body of Christ in the world, are to confront the demons of our times. But we do so as Jesus did, with compassion, but not taking any nonsense from them. We are to be firm in our conviction and resolute in our faith. And we best be sure that no demon has a place within us, that we have not welcomed any in mistaken compassion, or for that matter, as a source of power – we cannot overcome evil with evil. We’ll know that is the case if we show the signs of possession, if we cannot listen to God’s word, cannot hear Christ’s truth, cannot recognize the Spirit of Love when it comes into our presence, and so, lash out; when we lack the deliberation and intention of Christ to provide true life to others, and heal division among us.
As Moses tells us, the true prophet speaks in the name of God and no other, no other god, nor their secular equivalents, ideology and theory, and speaks only the word commanded.
Such was Jesus in his day, as he exercised the role of prophet, such is our role today as we continue his work in his name.
Amen.