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From the Associate…
DID YOU SAY, "EXPELLING DEMONS?"
The last line of today's Gospel reads like this: "So he [Jesus] went into their synagogues preaching the good news and expelling demons throughout the whole of Galilee." Proclaiming the good news: yes, we understand this and appreciate it. But what is all this about casting out demons? Why do these demons keep creeping in to the accounts of the life of Christ? We must admit that this idea, constant throughout the New Testament, that Jesus came to do battle against the devil and his demons, leaves many of us uncomfortable. Haven't we gotten past this? Isn't this belief in demonic power just the superstitious attitude of untaught or unintelligent people? Are we really to acknowledge the existence of a little leering creature with a pointy red tail and a sharp beard? Does not a more sophisticated and mature faith leave these phantoms behind, just as we discard our notions of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy when we get older? Can't we just explain these devil stories away? Weren't they really just diseases, or psychological states of mind, rather than demonic possession?
Well, no. The Church has always taught, and continues to teach, that evil, as well as goodness, is personal. The devil is real, painfully and tragically real for our race. Just as there are angelic hosts who stand in the presence of God in eternal adoration and who serve him on earth, so there is a demonic host, angels who have rejected light and beauty because in their pride they will not acknowledge God, who attempt to mar and destroy God's works. Their hatred for the human race is bitter, because we bear the image of God, an image the demons detest and fear. And so they are forever attempting to deface that image. We are made to be free sons and daughters, princes and princesses of the royal house; they try to make us slaves. We are meant to have hearts set on what is noble and lovely; they try to oppress us with ugliness and indignity. We are meant to be masters of our minds, our bodies, our desires; they try to destroy our self-mastery. We are made for truth and love; they attempt to fill the world with lies and hatred. We are made for eternal life; they poison us with death.
Left to ourselves, members of a fallen race, full of our own sin, we are powerless against the devil and his angels. But the Good News is that God did not leave us to ourselves. This slavery to the devil has been broken by God himself, who has taken flesh as a man and gone to battle on our behalf, leading the human race to freedom and life. This is what salvation means: we are saved from slavery to the devil, and from the sin and death that have linked us to him.
This is why the preaching of the Gospel always involves a battle with demons. Christ is robbing souls from the devil, breaking his hold on them, leading them back to their true place as children of God. And here we can take a cue from our wise medieval ancestors who gave us that pointy-tailed idiot as a representative of the devil. They did this, not because they thought he was really like this, but because they knew very well how powerful he could be, and they wanted to laugh at him so as not to fear him.
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