Most of my life I have tended to skip over portions of Scripture like today’s Gospel. I have dismissed what it says as “the ancients’ understanding” of mental and physical illness. In my mind, people didn’t understand things like epilepsy or schizophrenia, so they labeled such illnesses as being afflicted by a demon. When Scripture says Jesus “cast out demons,” what it really meant was that Jesus healed people of an illness. I did not believe demons are real.
Church Teaching on Demons
This is not what our church teaches. Our church teaches that before the fall of man, there was the fall of Satan and some other angels. These spiritual creatures were originally good angels, created spiritual beings who served God. But they were jealous of God and rebelled. They “became evil of their own doing.” (CCC 391) Of their own free choice, these spiritual creatures “radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign.” (CCC 392) They are the source of evil in our world.
Actually, Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan. He came to destroy the power of evil in our world. (CCC 394-395) He did that by his life, death, and resurrection.
Today’s Gospel
I see that now as the meaning of today’s Gospel. Jesus drove out a demon—something he did frequently. People then accused him of driving out demons by “the power of Beelzebul,” the prince of demons. While scholars disagree about exactly who Beelzebul was, the context in this passage is that he is of Satan, of the devil.
Was Jesus acting as the devil to drive out devils—what he was accused of here? Jesus makes quick work of that logic: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” He adds a second good question: “If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out?”
Then Jesus goes on to say something that is very important for us today:
“But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Satan is the strong man. Jesus is the Stronger Man.
Jesus came to DEFEAT evil. He is the Stronger Man.
Applications to Here and Now
How does this apply to me, to you? It is easy to take a reassurance application: “Jesus came to defeat the Evil One. He is God. He is stronger. No matter what is going on around me, I can feel safe because of that. Eventually God will make it all right in the world.”
That application seems legitimate. But, as I read, study, question, and listen for God to give me understanding, I do not hear God saying, “Relax, I’ve got it all taken care of.” That is not the meat of this passage for me today.
Instead my mind goes to an experience I had last Friday.
I have always struggled with forgiveness. I determined as Lent began to more deeply forgive some past hurts, using a healing prayer method within Confession. The method was to name the hurtful events one by one and say “I forgive…”, while imaginatively visualizing the events and choosing to give the resulting stones in my heart to Father who acted as Jesus as I named them. I had prepared—I thought. But in the power of the Sacrament and the Holy Spirit, something deeper happened. I discovered in the naming, that the evil done to me had influenced and limited me in serious ways I had never realized. True, I had not retaliated or passed on the evil. But I had buried it within and held on to it. I suddenly saw how that holding had created sin in me . As I moved from saying “I forgive” to owning the effects, words I had not intended to say poured out of me with a ring of Truth that was profoundly freeing.
It was painful. It was deep. It was powerful. It was like a river of God poured through me and washed me clean of stains I did not even know I had. The strong man hidden in me was defeated by the Stronger Man in the sacrament.
Baptism and the Strong Man
Then I recall that at baptism—and every Easter—we make the baptismal promises. “Do you reject Satan?” “And all his works?” “And all his empty promises?” Those statements are actually seen by the Church as “simple exorcisms,” plain, straight-forward rejections of Satan and the power of evil. (CCC 1237) The Church, in her sacraments, gives us tools for letting the Stronger Man claim us.
In Baptism we are claimed for Christ. Baptism “signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity.” (CCC 1239) In a very real way, each person baptized during the Easter vigil is having Satan cast out.
And, as was true for me last Friday, each time we make “a good confession,” the strong man is cast out by the Stronger Man.
Evil and The Will
Our parish uses Everyone’s Stations of the Cross when we say the Stations before the fish fry each Friday during Lent. The words of Christ for the Ninth Station, The Third Fall, come to mind:
“Completely drained of strength, I lie, collapsed, upon the cobblestones. My body cannot move. No blows, no kicks, can rouse it up.
And yet my will is mine. And so is yours.
Know this, my other self. Your body may be broken, but no force on earth and none in hell can take away your will. Your will is yours.”
Temptations—whether they are to do overt, recognized evil—or to bury evil inside where it influences you in hidden ways—or to accept the evil you see around you as normal—or to pretend evil doesn’t exist—temptations are Satan’s way to lie and trap our wills.
Jesus saved us from evil—our own and the evil done to us by others. But it takes our will to let Christ claim us and cast the demon out.
Evil and Forgiveness
On Tuesday Bob Garvey talked about forgiveness as “something that is impossible for human beings to do.” Forgiveness is an act of the will. It is not a feeling. Feelings come, but forgiveness is not about feeling better, at peace. Forgiveness is about choosing to let the Stronger Man bind the strong man in your life.
When you forgive, you stop the power of evil. I thought if I simply didn’t do to somebody what was done to me, I had stopped evil, had forgiven enough.
Today I see that differently: we as Christians bind the strong man here and now when we cast the evil out by an action of the will. We can do that through confession, through various forms of healing prayer, through Scripture study and Christian community, through simple choices to turn not only the other cheek, but the other way—to do what Jesus did any time we encounter evil. But we must choose to listen to God instead of to the strong man.
Our will must move toward the Stronger Man, toward Jesus.
This week’s Lenten theme across the readings seems to be “examine yourself for the quieter sins.” The daily Scripture readings name them: dismissing the messages of God, unforgiveness, not accepting our circumstances in life, growing lax in keeping God’s commands, not loving both God and neighbor, pride.
Listen to God and let the Stronger Man name these sins as they are in you. Use your will to call to Jesus to cast them out. Give them to Jesus. He already accepted them when his will chose the cross. The strong man has been defeated already. Claim it in your life.
Prayer:
Thank you, Lord, for inspiring my will, accepting my sorrow, washing my heart, and freeing me from evil in a new and wonderful way. Now fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may remain clean of heart. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
Selection from “Everyone’s Way of the Cross,” by Clarence Enzler. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1986.
CCC stands for Catechism of the Catholic Church. The numbers refer to paragraphs within the Catechism.
