Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (October 12, 2018): Fighting the Law of Chaos

Today’s Readings:

Galatians 3:7-14
Psalm 111:1b-6
Luke 11:15-26
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101218.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_10_12.mp3

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:
“By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.”
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
“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?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
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.

“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone,
it roams through arid regions searching for rest
but, finding none, it says,
‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’
But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits
more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there,
and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”

What happens after a person accepts salvation from Jesus? Can he or she live a good Christian life without working hard at growing in holiness daily? It’s easy to get lazy on the path to heaven. It’s also easy to give in to the impulses of our flesh-nature. It takes conscious and conscientious forward momentum to stay close to God.

While we’re still here in this sinful world, we suffer from the Law of Chaos. Everything decays, disorder is natural and order is unnatural and requires great effort. So, too, in our spiritual lives. Growth in holiness takes effort, and without that effort, our holiness decays. Daily. And demons try subtle and not-so-subtle ways to entice us onto the easy path. Daily. As Jesus points out in today’s Gospel reading, we can end up worse off than before our conversion.

Jesus is the “someone stronger”. He overpowered Satan by dying on the cross for our sins and then by overcoming death. It was our death that he took to the cross, and it was his life that he gave us in his resurrection, but we can only benefit from this if we choose to live in him, with him, and through him. Jesus has swept our houses clean, but now it’s up to us — with his help of course — to keep it clean.

Jesus gave us the authority, through our baptisms, to bind and cast demons away from us. However, the best and most effective way to defeat demons is to do the opposite of whatever they want us to do. Are you tempted to get angry? Forgive instead, even if you don’t feel like you want to. Are you tempted to demand your own way? Instead, do what the other person is demanding of you (as long as it’s not sinful).

We need to stop living in automatic mode and identify the ways that our lives are being ruled by the Law of Chaos. Then, we can choose to live by the Law of God’s Love. Putting effort into choosing holiness is so eternally and vitally important that the cost of our time and energy should not seem like too high a price.

We have to be overcomers, working on our holiness daily, consciously choosing behaviors that resist the Law of Chaos. One of the saddest examples of this, which I witnessed and caused me to discern the spiritual principles I’ve shared in this reflection, was the case of an old friend who was a priest with addictions. Although he did desire to grow spiritually, he was unwilling to pay the cost of recovery. I watched him wither emotionally and then spiritually. He ended up sequestered by his bishop to serve in a very small ministry, and soon after he withered physically as well and died an early death.

He had come alive in the Holy Spirit during seminary, and God graced him with a fantastic gift of miraculous healing and good preaching. However, although an initial conversion to Christ always turns destruction into resurrection, it cannot keep faith alive. On-going addictions cater to the flesh-nature, and so the person’s spirit disconnects from the Holy Spirit, and decay sets in.

Remember, with God all things are possible. Everyone can be rescued from the Law of Chaos, but often it doesn’t happen until they become miserable enough in their decay to desire change. Sometimes this happens after death in Purgatory. We must continually pray for those who are on the road of destruction. We must take time to discern what God is asking us to do to help them seek recovery. And we must choose to trust in God’s desire to resurrect all those we bring to him.

Today’s Prayer:

Lord Jesus, purify all my intentions, and give me discernment and strength to persevere in the battle against evil. Amen.

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica