Well in the sixth chapter of Mark's gospel. We find the account of Jesus sending his disciples out on mission They're going to preach; they're going to heal, but the first thing he tells them is you have authority over unclean spirits? When they return from mission the first thing they tell him is we cast out many demons in your name now when I was coming of age I mean, even in the seminary, that kind of language was seen as a kind of primitive superstition talking about devils, demons. Or maybe we tried to put a sort of literary Spin on it. It was a symbol for Evil it was a personification of Evil in the personal or institutional sense Here's the thing, that approach just doesn't do justice to the Bible. The Bible knows all about personal sin It's very clear about that it also knows about institutional disorder dysfunction very clearly But it knows about a third level a, third dimension, a type of Evil that is Underneath if you want that undergirds the other two is more pervasive and dangerous. This level of truly spiritual evil. I'm talking about fallen Angels now. You know, Catholics get up every single week and we confess our belief in God who made the visible world and the invisible world it means a realm of spirits realities at a higher pitch of existence What's a devil, but a fallen or morally compromised angel? They're good and bad human beings They're good and bad angels, but see here's the thing think of a wicked person you know, who's also very smart, very talented and well-connected that's a truly dangerous figure, right? When you combine wickedness with lots of other powers so a devil, an angel of being at a very high pitch of intelligence, and so on who has gone bad is a dangerous figure indeed Now, do devils influence the world ,sometimes, in very direct and frightening ways? Yeah, talk to anyone involved in exorcism I've talked to a few over the years and some extraordinary stories ensue, but that's not the typical way that the Dark realm intervenes usually it does so in a much more indirect way by suggestion by temptation Something I featured in the catholicism series I think the most frightening religious painting in the world at the orvieto Cathedral by the great early renaissance Master, Luca Signorelli, much admired by Michelangelo by the way But you see these frescoes there and the most striking one is a depiction of the antichrist It shows this figure the antichrist and he's listening as the devil whispers in his ear So kind of a classic symbol of this temptation But what's really interesting is the devil puts his hand Kind of in the vesture of the antichrist in such a way that it looks for all the world like the antichrist own arm And it's a very clever way of suggesting how the dark powers influence us indirectly Clandestinely by insinuation in such a way that heck it looks like our activity and in many ways it is But yet, it's the dark powers having invaded Now what what are the signs of the demonic? What are the ways the demonic appears well look at the names the bible gives? The Devil is called in the Greek: διάβολος
(diávolos).Our word devil Diablo and in Spanish, diable in french all come from that--Teufel in German too-- Di Bao lain(?) means to cast apart to throw apart; to scatter The great sign of a Demonic is scattering God is a great gathering force. Whenever things come together when a community forms that's a sign of a holy spirit the scattering power. That's the sign of the darker power when families get scattered when Business organizations when communities when cultures get divided that's the dark power The other great name in the Bible is aweso [taunus] that's the greek that's based on the on the Hebrew word that means the accuser the Accuser Here's a little experiment try this today Examine your conscience and find out how many times in the course the day you accuse someone of something I? Bet you'd be kind of surprised. We do it a lot. It's one of our favorite indoor pastimes point the finger Blame a gossip destroy someone's character, you know the sign of the demonic is accusation the Holy Spirit lifts up and Confirms, you know and and affirm someone in his or her personhood the demonic is the accusing power Here's a related title I find fascinating the bible calls the devil the father of [lives] God is truth. See in truthfulness About [ourselves] about our relationships about our family about whatever it is truthfulness is always the path of light It's the path that leads to smooth functioning truthfulness The sign of a Demonic is deceitfulness is untruth Think now of the way an untruth about you has perhaps wounded you in a very deep way Someone said something about you that wasn't true. It was a lie, but yet it wounded you in such a way that one is still festering after many decades think of the times you've Wounded somebody with an untruth you know and again the the wrecking of someone's reputation wrecking of someone's character by means of a lie That's a sign of the dark power Here's the last one and it is the most frightening name. It's in the first letter of John The author refers the devil as the murderer from the beginning God is his life, right? God is life. Whatever enhances life is of the holy spirit That's why John Paul talked about the culture of death. You know the sign of a dark power is always an in crease in Death it's a negation of life You know look at the 20th century which is the bloodiest on record no question about that The number of people killed you know for ideological purposes in warfare in the 20 century was the was the worst ever Can you explain that? entirely through psychological or political categories I mean it just seems almost comically inadequate to the reality to say that you know Hitler Stalin mao, ETC are simply explicable politically or psychologically I don't know there's something about the the pervasiveness of violence and and the destruction of life in the 20th century That is all the marks of the murderer from the beginning you know Okay now so far. That's the bad news if you want. Here's the good news The good news is and it's central to Christianity is that Christ has conquered these powers He's conquered individual sin true He's conquered collective institutional sin But the Bible clearly witnesses to the fact that Jesus has conquered these powers As a great passage read it in the second chapter of Colossians Paul uses an image borrow from his own time when a Roman general won a victory he bring the Leaders of the Captive Nation back. He parade them in chains through the street to humiliate them Right. Paul says Christ through his cross has done just that with the dark powers He's chained them up, and has now made a public display of them, he says. You know we read that language now We think what's he talking about that's exactly what song about is what he would have known as a roman citizen Citizen of that world is oh yeah, they're humiliating these conquered people that's what Christ did to the power of the cross Which means we don't have to be beholden to these powers. That's near the Heart of the Christian thing They've been defeated and we now can claim victory over them What are the weapons that we have if you want to stay with that kind of military analogy? the Mass the eucharist Confession, the sacraments, the saints in other words the whole Stuff of the church you might construe as the weapons that we can use in the battle against the dark powers Here's one of the sad things as Catholics now in droves stay away from all those weapons They shouldn't be too surprised that the dark powers can begin to have an influence over them or switch the analogy now to the medical one especially with confession in mind suppose you have a bad cut you know on your hand a deep cut which you never attend to You don't treat it you don't bandage it anyway, no disinfectant applied It's just as open wound but what's going to happen is is Bacteria germs and so I will get in and the hand will become infected if you if you would ignore that in time your whole body will Become infected, right? Think of sin, I don't mean trivial sin here, but I mean like that repeated habitual sin that we can all fall into as a kind of an open wound in your Spirit untreated what can happen is the germs and Bacteria if you want in the spiritual order the dark powers can use that as a way of getting in a way of Influencing you well see what the church give us the means to treat these wounds called confession It's called the confession of our sins the reception of absolution which treats that wound you know? We have the weapons we [have] the medical Means if you have to deal with these powers which have been defeated by Christ But we have to claim that victory We have to claim that healing and I think that's right near the heart of the Christian thing to this day as jesus Sent them out 2,000 years ago to do battle he still sends a church out for the same purpose today
