DEMONS:
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. AMEN.

INTRODUCTION

I’m not sure whether to give my homily a one word short title: “Demons” or to give it a long, long title: “Demons: And Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil. Amen.”

My hope is that you reflect upon demons and prayer.


Suggestion. One of my ongoing suggestions in homilies has been to use one’s rosary not just for Hail Mary’s.*

Suggestion, better recommendation: Be evangelists and catechists. Give your kids rosary beads and tell them they can use a rosary for all kinds of prayers. I have suggested using a rosary to say 59 times – with the 59 beads of the rosary – one word prayers, like “Thanks!” or “Help!” or “Peace!” or three word prayers, “Lord have mercy!” “Come Holy Spirit!” or switch them around for the different decades – or just use one decade.

Please do that! It works. Or recommend to your kids or others to take a rosary and use them to name 59 people they remember and want God to bless or Mary to bless or what have you. Or use them like Moslems sometimes use their so called “Worry Beads,” their 33 beads, which they go through 3 times, coming up with 99 names for God. We can do it for 59 names for God or for Jesus Christ, the Son of God: “Light!” “Joy” “Happiness” “Peace” “Creator” “Lord.” “Savior” “Friend” “Presence” “Eucharist” and on and on and on.

Today my suggestion – my recommendation is for you – not just your kids. Take your rosary and use the 59 beads to say just part of the Our Father, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

TEN TIMES

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

In 49 seconds I just said that prayer 10 times. I know it was 10 times because I used a rosary – which is a counting device.

If I just said “Help” 10 times, it would be 9 seconds.

THIS ROSARY

This rosary beads is the saddest rosary beads I have ever been given. They came in an envelope after a funeral I did for someone. The family gave them to me. I already have several rosaries. I said to myself, “Why didn’t they keep them for themselves as a memory of their dad who died – who obviously prayed with them many times over? They are well used.”

The message on the envelope was that their dad got the rosary in Palestine.

I am not supposed to judge, but at the funeral, nobody seemed to know when to sit or stand or know the prayers of the Mass – so I didn’t know if they were Catholics or if they were Catholics any longer.

That was an even more reason why I would hope they keep their dad’s rosary – to remind them to pray.

That’s another reason why I recommend using a rosary beads to say Hail Mary’s or other prayers with the hope the person would pray in Jesus’ name as we heard in today’s gospel.

RANGER ROSARY

This parish is known around the world now for the Ranger Rosary. I think that’s great, wonderful, amazing. For the past few years now, thanks to various people in this parish, Ranger Rosaries keep on being made and shipped to our men and women in our Armed Service. The men and women around the world in the Armed Services have in hand – or pocket – a reminder and a help – a perpetual help – to pray – to say the Hail Mary’s and the Our Father and the other prayers of the rosary.

And as we Catholics also know, rosaries are kept in pockets, around necks, on rear view mirrors, as visible reminders to pray for God’s protection and help each day.

THIS HOMILY

In this homily this morning I’m also suggesting using your rosary to say the last part of the Our Father, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

DEMONS: TODAY’S GOSPEL – TODAY’S READINGS

Now a few words about demons – and temptations and tests – and my hope is you understand the gist of my words.

Today’s gospel and today’s readings are tough stuff.

The gospel begins with John saying to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”

To understand the gospels and the writings in the Bible, we not only have to remember it’s from thousands of years ago – when people understood not only the sun and the moon and the stars differently – but also body and mind health very differently.

Demons lurked everywhere and understanding a bit about demons can help us understand the scriptures better.

In his Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie S.J. under Demons and Demonology, says that the beliefs and understandings of the people of Mesopotamia regarding demons had a great influence on the way the people of Israel saw life. Literature and art from that area and time tell us that people thought there were countless demons roaming around – outside and inside people. To counteract evil demons you had to know their name and chant the name of a more powerful god – hence Jesus’ name became very powerful and important – for some people.

Listen to this list of demons and what part of the body they attacked. People would chant the demon’s name to try to get them to leave. It’s a very interesting way of understanding health care.

· The demon named, “Ashakku” attacked the head.
· The demon named, “Utukku” attacked the neck.
· The demon named, “Namtaru” attacked the throat.
· The demon named, “Alu” attacked the chest.
· The demons named, “Etimmu” and “Ilu” attacked the hand.
· The demon named, “Gallu” attacked the foot.

“Pazuzu”, he thinks, was probably the demon in the South West wind that brought the infection of malaria.

I was wondering whether the words “Atchoo” which people say when they sneeze or “shoo” when they want someone or something to go away – are somehow in this mix of sounds.

In one way, Jesus moved amongst people who were dealing with a lot more medical problems than we have in our day – while on the other hand, most people died very young.

In the meanwhile Jesus said, “Stop worrying about people using my name, but in the meanwhile give cups of water to people to drink.”

Then Jesus gets into deeper sicknesses – sins – giving bad example to kids – or the sins of the eyes – what we see, the sins of the feet where we go – entering into hell – going into places like Gehenna – the garbage dump in Jerusalem – that was always smelly and burning.

Now of course, Jesus doesn’t want us to gauge out our eyes or cut off our hands and feet – but he does challenge us to make deep cutting decisions in our life – to cut and run from what is destroying us.

Question: What are your demons? What are your temptations? What are your sins? What are your addictions? What’s killing you?

Today’s first reading talks about jealousy and sniping about others.

Today’s second reading talks about avarice and hoarding – the opposite of generosity. Today’s second reading from James talks about unfair wages – and fat cating it.

Tough stuff – some of the ongoing temptations of life – practices unfortunately our kids can pick up from us – by our bad example – and bad example to young people Jesus warns this morning is a big no, no. It would be better if a great millstone was tied to our neck and we were thrown into the sea.

CONCLUSION

Young people also pick up good example – generosity, acts of kindness, giving of our time, treasure and talents – as well as cups of water to the thirsty.

The title of my homily is, “Demons: And Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil. Amen.”

My action step recommendation is to use a rosary to say that prayer 10 times each day or 59 times each day. Maybe someone will see you with your rosary in hand and ask, “What are you doing? Or what’s that beady thing in your hand?” Go for it!



*Cf. Chapter 22, "Rosary Beads Aren't Just For Hail Mary's Any More, in the book, Thank God It's Friday, by Andrew Costello, The Thomas More Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1987, [Out of Print]