4th Sunday of Ordinary Time (01.02.15)
Possession
Diabolic possession is not confined to history. There are people today suffering from Satanic possession, but are they welcome in our churches? The question is prompted by the pained outburst from the man, possessed by an unclean spirit, in the Gospel for this 4th Sunday of the Year – Mark 1:21-28.
The word ‘possession’ describes a person’s condition when they have voluntarily allowed another to exercise control over them. Our Creator God gave us a free will so that our choice to love Him remains un-coerced. God will never possess us by force, nor will He allow another to possess us, against our will. An individual has to invite God’s indwelling. An individual has to invite Satan’s indwelling. In either case, the resulting indwelling is less than 100% as God’s ordinance ensures we retain an element of our free will. The possessed man’s cry to Jesus for help is evidence of a retained element of free will.
An insufficient or careless vigilance in safeguarding our free will effectively means we choose to disable it. Satan, like a highly contagious, deadly virus, is ever on the alert for when we drop our guard. An informed, grace-infused, conscience is our free will’s secure gatekeeper. A conscience starved of God’s grace puts our freedom of will at risk from invasion by Evil. St. John states it clearly in his First Letter (5:19), “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one”. In other words, the contagion of Satan is everywhere on earth, even within The Church. Satan was active among the Apostles at The Last Supper. Judas Iscariot had lowered his defenses. Satan made use of the opportunity tempting Judas with thirty pieces of silver.
The tragedy of Ebola remains a vivid wake-up call to the deadly power of contamination. Despite careful precautions, the virus needs only one failed safeguard to claim another victim. The world, shocked at the Ebola crisis, was shocked again when told that more people continue to die daily from Malaria than have died from the recent Ebola outbreak! People imagined that Malaria had been conquered. Wrong! It can be successfully combatted but it is still a killer. If vigilance is a vital defense against Malaria and Ebola, how much more vigilance is needed if we want to be protected living, as we do, in Satan’s world?
Insufficient vigilance in the safeguarding of our free will becomes all too easy. Evil gains ingress by stealth through un-repented habitual sin, the misuse of drugs or alcohol, unfettered ambition, selfishness, etc. Nobody becomes either holy or evil in an instant!
We are personally responsible not only for our free will but we also share responsibility for the protection of other peoples’ free will. Jesus’ parable teaching about the Day of Judgment has this: “People will ask the King: ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers or sisters of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:39)
The protection of free will, ours or another’s, should be our prime concern since free will distinguishes us from other known species of life on earth. Yet people continue to play ‘fast and loose’ with this unique gift. An example would be the seemingly harmless ‘one-for-the-road’ drink that takes a habitual drinker from ‘not entirely safe’ to ‘positively dangerous’ behind the wheel of a car or, worse, in the family home.
Our waking moments are spent at the crossroads of decision-making where we need the habit of good practice in matters great and small. A disabled conscience leaves us in grave danger. The famous claim, “I didn’t intend ….” is no excuse for spiritual laziness and unaddressed bad habits.
Only an individual can surrender her or his free will. Eve allowed Satan to tempt her and she, in turn tempted, Adam. By contrast, Mary at Nazareth accepted God’s invitation, delivered by the Angel Gabriel, when she said:“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”(Luke 1:38) Mary’s lifetime practice of the love of God is reflected in her response.
The possessed man’s outburst in the Capernaum synagogue highlights the pain of Satanic possession: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!” Jesus is present in our sin-wounded world in the words and actions of those who choose to open their whole heart and soul to him. Someone once wrote, “Jesus has now no hands on earth save mine, no voice save mine, no heart, no ears, no mind save mine.” Whatever their personal beliefs, the medical and other volunteers who are nursing Ebola patients in West Africa are fulfilling Jesus’ command: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13: 34)
Church buildings provide a gathering place for recovering sinners. The important word is ‘recovering’. Only when a person accepts his or her sinfulness can healing begin. Alcoholics Anonymous teach this daily. It’s enormously powerful to hear a colleague say, when offered alcoholic beverage, “No thanks. I’m a recovering alcoholic’. Were I to be asked why I am a Christian would my response be, “Because I’m a recovering sinner”? It should be, but would it? Probably I’d be more likely to mutter something about being Baptised as an infant, thereby consigning another precious moment of evangelization to the dust.
This Sunday’s Gospel tells us the possessed man made it into the synagogue to give voice to his pain. Through the all-important remnant of his free will he appealed for help and Jesus heard and responded. “Jesus rebuked him (the evil spirit) and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed the man and with a loud cry came out of him.” (Mark 1: 21-28)
Do we list ourselves among intended beneficiaries when we join in the multiple petitions for deliverance from evil in our communal prayer or do we have others in mind? As a self-acknowledged recovering sinner I accept that I have come too close to evil, in much the same way that a recovering alcoholic accepts that she or he has looked into the empty glass too often.
Without a daily acknowledgment of our status as recovering sinners we are spiritually ill equipped for life in the 21st Century. How else can we be The Church Christ founded! St. Paul has encouraging words in his 2ndletter to the Corinthians (6:16; 7:1):
“The temple of the living God is what we are: ‘I will live and move and have my being among them; (God says referring to us) I will be their God and they shall be my people.’ Such are the promises that have been made to us, dear friends. Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all that can defile our spirit, and in the fear of God complete our consecration.”