Friday, February 27, 2015

Lovers Quarrel

Letting Jesus expel lesser loves
Mark 1:21-28

           Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

            Do you know what it the easiest thing in the world to do?  It’s to love something.  Do you know what is the hardest thing in the world to do?  It’s also to love something, but to love it well, to love it the way we should.  For instance, we love some things way too much.  We say, “I love candy!” or “I love legos!” or “I love Fr. John!” (You can’t love Fr. John too much).  Or, if you’re Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, you say, “I love rock and roll! Put another dime in the jukebox, baby!”  On the other hand, some things we don’t love at all, even though we should.  We don’t love our enemies, even though Jesus tells us to.  We don’t love the vegetables on our plate that we should eat for supper.  And we definitely don’t love long sermons on Sundays!  You see, in every human heart there rages a kind of lovers’ quarrel between lesser, impure and selfish loves on the one hand, and higher, holier and more altruistic loves on the other hand.  Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “The only way to get rid of an old love is with the expulsive power of a new love.”  You’ve heard the old saying, “Fight fire with fire.”  Well, you also have to fight love with love; you must fight lesser loves with higher loves, you fight diabolical loves with divine loves, and you fight selfish loves with disinterested loves.  Every human heart is the scene of a lovers’ quarrel.

In the gospel today we see what happens in the heart when Jesus arrives on the scene.  There is a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and Jesus rebukes him and commands, “Come out of him!”  Basically, Jesus performs an exorcism.  By the way, someone recently sent me a “meme.”  Do you know what that is?  It’s a picture with a funny caption written on it.  This picture showed an old Catholic priest, apparently an exorcist, holding a large crucifix.  The caption read: “Everyone makes fun of Catholics until they have a demon in their house!”  That's when you finally appreciate Catholicism.  That’s when you’ll REALLY love Fr. John!  Anyway, in the gospel, Jesus expels the unclean spirit.  How did he do it?  Well, Mark says Jesus spoke with authority, and I believe that was the authority of love; love is the only authentic authority.  In other words, Jesus, the highest love, has the authority to expel all lesser, unclean loves, symbolized by unclean spirits.  Now, don’t misunderstand me, there really are evil spirits, the fallen angels, but they use these lesser loves to lead us away from the highest love, God.  In every human heart there rages a lovers’ quarrel, and only Jesus, the highest love, can expel the lower loves.

            You know, it’s taken me a long time to see that this lovers’ quarrel is exactly what happens in prayer, and unfortunately, the wrong side was winning in my heart.  A good friend of mine, Fr. Bill Thomas, who died several years ago, liked to call me on the phone out of the blue and ask, “Hey, John, have you made it to your Happy Hour today?”  Fr. Bill wasn’t inviting me to have a drink with him; a Happy Hour was his time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  But I always replied with some lame excuse.  I’d say: “Yeah, sure, Bill, I’m headed to the chapel right now!”  But I wasn’t.  You see, I was running around chasing so many lesser loves – even though they were good things – while I ignored Jesus, the highest Love.  Now, thanks to Fr. Bill, I make my Happy Hour first thing in the morning, and I invite Jesus into the lovers’ quarrel in my heart, to expel the lesser loves.  In other words, I have stopped singing with Joan Jett, “I love rock and roll,” and I have learned to sing with Steve Winwood, “Bring me a higher love.”  Do you remember that song?  Here are a few lines: “Think about it, there must be higher love; Down in the heart, or hidden in the stars above.  Without it, life is wasted time; look inside your heart, I’ll look inside mine.”  During my Happy Hour, I look inside my heart and see the higher love of Jesus winning the lovers’ quarrel.

            Ask yourself today: do lesser loves keep me from the higher love of Christ?  For example, do I worry too much about food and drink – some of you are planning your dinner menu right now!  Am I obsessive about fashion and my appearance?  Am I obsessive about other people’s fashion and appearance??  Does social media like Facebook and Twitter consume my time?  Are watching sports and playing video games so important that I put my family in second place?  And stop sending me invitations to play Candy Crush Saga!!  Now, these are not bad things, indeed they are good things.  But as Scott Hahn says, “The good can become the enemy of the best, if it keeps you from the best.”  Let me repeat that: “The good can become the enemy of the best if it keeps you from the best.”  Would you like to know who’s winning the lovers’ quarrel in your heart?  Here’s a simple test: do you come to Mass every Sunday?  You see, missing Mass on Sunday is often a sign that some lesser love – like camping, or hunting or sports – is more important to you than the love of Jesus.  Every Sunday at Mass, Jesus speaks with the authority of love to expel these lesser loves out of our hearts.

            So, it’s okay to love candy, and it’s okay to love legos and it’s definitely okay to love Fr. John.  But don’t love these things more than you love Jesus.  Don’t let these good things become the enemy of the best thing.  Don’t put another dime in the jukebox, baby; put another dime in the collection plate, baby!


            Praised be Jesus
Christ!

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