Driving out Demons

Expelling demons and being filled with God

11/27/2022

9:35–10:1, 5A, 6-8 Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Then he summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

I saw a funny meme the other day that said, “Everyone makes fun of the Catholic Church until they have a demon in their house.” But I think that meme says more than it seems at first sight. How so? Well, I believe people also “make fun of demons until they have a demon in their house.” In other words, demon possession might not only help you believe in the Catholic Church, it can also help you believe in demons themselves. Sadly, we live in a society that is asleep to the spiritual world, and sometimes it takes a demon to wake us up from our dogmatic slumber. Demon possession is never a good thing, of course, but sometimes it can have some beneficial, even if unintended, consequences.

In the gospel today, Jesus has no doubts about demons and no doubts about the Church to which he gives the authority to cast out demons. We read from Matthew 10, the great missionary discourse, as well as the third Luminous Mystery of the rosary called the Proclamation of the Gospel. Notice what Jesus tells his apostles (his first bishops) to do: “As you go make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.”

It is so significant that Jesus says “the Kingdom of heaven” because all these healings are exactly what being in heaven will feel like, especially driving out demons. In Rv 12:7-9, we hear how St. Michael drove demons out of heaven, and now the apostles drive demons out, because they are bringing the Kingdom of heaven down to earth.

Now, usually not a week goes by in which someone does not call the church and ask for a priest to come and bless their house because people think they have a demon in their home. And what do we do? I send Fr. Bala, and tell him to go check it out and let me know how it goes. But seriously, we do get such calls and we go and bless people’s home with holy water.

In a sense, every house blessing with holy water is a pseudo-baptism of that home. Why? Well, because part of the baptism of a baby includes an exorcism. That occurs when we anoint the baby on the chest with oleo catecumenorum, which is Latin for the oil of catechumens. That anointing includes a prayer of exorcism. In other words, in every baptism, as well as at every house blessing, we fulfill Jesus’ command today to “drive out demons.”

My friends the commission to drive out demons is not exclusively the task of bishops and priests, but also the job of every Christian. In other words, every Christian has to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth so that both heaven and earth can be filled with angels rather than demons. I tell people that the best way to drive out demons is not simply by a sprinkling of holy water and a few spiritual words, although that is very important.

In addition, a Christian drives out demons from his or her life by living faith, hope, and love. By immersing themselves in the Scripture and sacraments. By caring for the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the immigrants. I insist with people who just want me to come bless their house to drive out demons that such a blessing will do no good unless their life is transformed by the gospel. In other words, a demon does not just want to hang out in your house and scare you at night. He wants to hang out in your heart and torment you for eternity in hell.

If you find all this talk about driving out demons fascinating – at least so you don’t make fun of the Catholic Church – then perhaps you will enjoy reading C. S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, about how a higher ranking demon gives advice to a lower ranking demon, who is actually his nephew. Lewis has a brilliant insight about why demons bother us and what they are finally after.

In one letter Screwtape, the uncle demon, writes about what Satan wants with humans versus what God wants with us. He says: “We want [humans like] cattle who can finally become [our] food. God wants servants who can finally become sons.” In other words, Satan and his demons want to consume us, whereas God allows us to consume him in Holy Communion. And being filled with God, and even becoming like God, is the only way to drive out demons.

Praised be Jesus Christ!