“Forgiving the unrepentant is like drawing pictures on
water.”
Japanese Proverb
January 15, 2019
EXERCISING OUR DEMONS
OR
EXORCISING OUR DEMONS
INTRODUCTION
The title and the theme of my homily this morning is
“Exercising our Demons or Exorcising our Demons.”
Everyone of us has demons within. They are living there
consciously and unconsciously inside our mind and heart and psyche. And these
demons within us can destroy us. Let him without sins cast the first stone. Let
him without demons cast the first stone. To deny them is to move towardsbecoming a Pharisee.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel, Jesus comes along and frees this man of
his demons, so that he can take those energies and use them for community. This
is good news. Jesus brings freedom. He shares his strength to help those who
are being overpowered by strengths and energies that they can’t control. He
frees that energy that is locked up by our demons.
EXERCISING OUR
DEMONS
Demons are our sins and the results of our sins. They are
also the ways we have been hurt and sinned against. And then they are all those
inner conversations and sometimes even shouting matches that we have with
ourselves when we let our demons out to play in the playground of our mind.
It has been my experience that people exercise their demons.
We flex them.We let them out to play.
And as a result, like any exercise they become stronger and more pronounced.
A good analogy for what I am trying to get at today is Eric
Bern’s analogy of the tape. Most of us spend hours and hours of time each day
playing tapes. We walk around with an invisible “Walkman” inside our skull. The
result is we can become deaf to everyone else. Haven’t we all had the
experience of being with someone who is totally involved with listening to
tapes and totally unaware of us. And then we start to talk inside our heads
about what they are doing. Sometimes it even pushes our button and we start to
inwardly bitch and bitch about them.
In other words we do spend a lot of time talking to
ourselves. Well, if they are conversations we had before, Eric Bern would call
them “tapes”.
And we have a whole cabinet of them in our inner storeroom.
And the topics and themes of our tapes are many. We play our anger tapes, our
lust tapes, our should tapes, our should not tapes, our poor me tapes. We have
drawers filled with all kinds of tapes. Someone just pushes our button and we
have immediate access to them. Or we inwardly run and get them and start to
play our tapes. We play them in traffic, in our rooms, in chapel, in the corridor.
Say the wrong thing and push - we begin to play them. We begin to exercise our
demons.
Warning: playing tapes, like using a telephone while
driving, can dangerous to our health. They can kill us, because they can run
the show. They can destroy us.
Let him without demons cast the first stone. Let him without
demons deny the presence of the tapes. Let him without demons look down on
those whose demons are running their lives and destroying their everyday.
MIKE
Take the experience of going to a funeral. We go to the
wake. We sit there. We go to the church. We sit there. We go to the cemetery.
We stand there.
And what do we do the whole time. Don’t we play tapes.
I remember going to my brother-in-law’s brother’s funeral. I
drove down for the wake and for the funeral. While driving back I began to play
back what went on in my mind and heart while I was at the funeral—the tapes
that I had listened to.
Mike had his demons. One was demon drink. I even heard that
phrase being used as a joke at the funeral parlor. He smoked. He died of
cancer—alone in a small rented room. 12 years ago his wife after repeated
attempts to reach him told him to leave. He did. She had gotten help from
Allanon. But the damage had already been done from years and years of
alcoholism. His 2 kids were quite messed up. Both had to get married.
At the funeral parlor I stood there and noticed that the son
of the man in the closed coffin was quite drunk. He would sneak out, as someone
told me, to take a drink or smoke a joint. He was bouncing all over the place.
The demon drink was bouncing within him. He was filled with guilt as one person
told me—living without his father for the past 12 years.
I figured it was useless to talk to him, so I butted in and
talked to his wife. They are planning on moving in 2 weeks for North Carolina. I
usually don’t jump in, but I went up to her and said, “Kick ass. Get yourself
some help. It looks like Mike has a serious drinking problem.” Her response
was, “Oh, he’s just going through a rough few days.” The demon of denial is
playing in her head. I said to her, “When you get to North Carolina join Alanon like your
mother-in-law did up here.” I didn’t say that geographical changes can often be
a denial of the real changes that are needed.
The demon of not saying a thing was running around in my
head, but I didn’t play that tape. I figured this was the best thing to do at
the moment.
That was the just the funeral parlor. That’s what I was
talking to myself about. That’s what tapes I was playing. A whole new set of tapes
kicked in when I went to the funeral mass the next morning.It was disaster alley. The priest was a
robot. He said the whole mass in 29 minutes: sermon, prayers for the dead,
meeting the coffin in the back of the church before and after the mass. I sat
there stewing about impersonal priests. I even said to Jack McGowan after
communion, “I’m leaving the Catholic Church.” After mass a few people were
fishing for my reaction to the priest. One person said that the guy needed a
personality transplant. I kept quiet.
But afterwards I began to think. I don’t know this guy. But
I do have an obligation to know myself. Let him without sins cast the first
stone. Let him without demons give the first evaluation. What are the things
that I must do to make life more personal and better for others?
FIRST READING
That brought me to this morning and today’s readings. One of
the advantages of preaching is you get a chance to clarify your own
thoughts.
In today’s first reading a sentence grabbed me. Yes, all
things are subject to Jesus, but obviously, it has not happened yet.
GOSPEL
That brought me to the Gospel. This man in the gospel with
the unclean spirit is me. That man is me. I have many unclean spirits in me
that are often shrieking and yelling. I am here in this synagogue and Jesus
approaches me or I approach Jesus.
I need help. I have demons within me. They are scared of
Jesus Christ. They know that Jesus can destroy them. So they are very aware of
Jesus’ presence.
But being smart they identify with my person. They become
me. Demons become me. I spend so much time talking with them that I fear that I
will be destroyed if they are destroyed. I am like Francis Thomson who said,
“Lest having you I will have nothing else.”
Jesus: I confess today in this synagogue, this meeting
place, that you are the savior. You can take away the sins of my world. You can
uproot my demons.
And hopefully Jesus will say, Be quiet. Come out of the man.
And people will be amazed at our change - our change in
personality and behavior.
Writing about this section of Mark (page 39), calling it “A
Typical Day” in the Life of Jesus, Diarmuid McGann, a priest out in Long Island, has 5 steps that take place here:
1)I must
perceive my demons;
2)I must claim
my demons;
3)I must name my
demons;
4)I must tame my
demons;
5)I must re-aim
the energies that are locked up in the
demon.
CONCLUSION
So the obvious response is, Amen, Come Lord Jesus!
Thought for today: “He who forgives ends the quarrel.”
African Proverb
January 14, 2019
THE
BEGINNING OF
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
INTRODUCTION
Today as we begin the Gospel of Mark, for a homily I’d like
to preach on 3 points:
1) Some quick opening reflections on the Gospel of Mark
2) A brief reference to Jesus’ opening message about the
Kingdom—as we heard it in today’s gospel
3) A few comments about Jesus calling ordinary people:
Peter, Andrew, James and John.
1) THE GOSPEL OF
MARK
Today we begin Ordinary Time with the Gospel of Mark—Monday
the first week in OT and we’ll have Mark till Monday, the tenth week in OT.
In year B, on Sundays, we have The Gospel of Mark on
Sundays till the 16 Sunday in OT—with time out for Lent and Easter. However, this year - is the year of Luke for Sundays.
So some quick comments on Mark.
Mark is most probably the first of the 4 Gospels, so it’s a
good place to start. It’s only 16 chapters. It can be read in one sitting.
Mark is practical. Mark is visual. Mark is details. No frills. All action.
No fluff, stuff. He does not tell too many parables, stories, sayings of
Jesus—especially the little images, but rather he’s into action. He tells what
Jesus did more than what Jesus said.
“Jesus went about doing
good.”
He does not give us the infancy stuff. That’s fluff.
No, he starts off with John the Baptist and then gets right
to the point: Jesus.
Jesus then does stuff right around Galilee—in
the north—then Jesus goes south.
He get to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He cleans out the
temple. He is arrested and killed.
Then he rises from the dead, tells his disciples to “Go into
the whole world and preach what I told you—the Kingdom—to all people.”
2) THE KINGDOM
So that’s Jesus in a nutshell according to Mark. It’s about
the Kingdom.
It’s about being in the Kingdom—living in the Kingdom—living
in the Kingdom of
God.
We don’t start there, so we are called there—to change and
enter that kingdom.
Picture yourself in a room—better picture yourself as a
room. It’s filled. It’s filled with so much stuff that to go to bed you have to
take stuff off your bed and you put it on your desk. And to work at your desk,
you got to take the stuff off your desk and put it on your bed—and that’s what
you do day after day after day and night after night after night all through
your life.
Finally someone says, “You don’t have to do it that way,
stupid!”
You say, “There is? What is it?”
And the other person says, “Get rid of everything that you
don’t need and you’ll have all the space you need.”
Change! Repent! Turn around! See everything different. Start
doing things differently.
The Purgative
Way is the emptying way.
The next stage is The Illuminative Way.
So my second point simply is Jesus message to change. To see
differently, to do different, to be different.
That’s Good News if you are sick and tired of being dragged
down by your own nonsense.
I can change. That’s good news. I can become light.
3) THE CALLING
My third point is the calling. The simple call: “Come follow
me!”
I read a quote from a man by the name of Lew Wallac. Picture
or listen to his account of deciding to follow Christ compared to the calling
and letting go and following Christ by Peter, Andrew, James and John, in
today’s gospel—how they were called, let go, and followed Jesus immediately.
After six years given to impartial investigation of
Christianity, as to its truth of falsity, I have come to the deliberate
conclusion that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the Jews, the Savior of the
world, and my personal Saviour.”
That’s some contrast.
We are both.
Some of us made our move fast and took 6 years + to reflect
upon it.
Some take six years and then jump at the right moment.
So I advise you to have Jesus Christ come to your boat and
see what he sees in you.
Barclay, commenting on this text sees Jesus knowing these
guys beforehand-- at least to have
watched them.
Barclay also makes a second point and that is that these are
common men, common slobs, that Jesus mixed with, the common folk.
If you ever get to New York City, take the subway. Look around. You'll be with common folk.
What is your attitude towards common folk?
George Bernard Shaw, “I have never had any feeling for the
working-classes, except a desire to abolish them, and replace them with
sensible people.”
John Galsworthy has one of his characters in his
book, The Patrician, say, “The mob! How I loathe it. I hate its mean stupidity.
I hate the sound of its voice , and the look of its face—it’s so ugly, so
little. “
Carlyle, in a fit of anger, once said that there were twenty
seven million people in England,
mostly fools.
Jesus did not talk or feel that way about people.
Lincoln,
quoted by Barclay, said, “God must love the common folk—he made so many of
them.”
So Jesus called common people, ordinary people, in an
ordinary time, to be his extraordinaly disciples.
So too us!
We can say that he’s calling us.
Our move.
Our choice.
CONCLUSION
So those are three reflections to keep in mind today as we
begin the Gospel of Mark here in Ordinary Time—up till Ash Wednesday (March 6th this year).
