Friends,
today's Gospel finds Jesus encountering a man with an unclean spirit in
the synagogue at Capernaum. Isn't it interesting that the first unclean
spirit that Jesus confronts is in the holy place, the place of worship?
And what marks this man? Though he is a single person, an individual,
he speaks in the plural: "What do you have to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?"
The
diabolic is, literally, a scattering power: diabalein. Sin separates us
from one another—Sunde, related to sundering—but it also divides us
interiorly, setting one part of the self against another. We've all
experienced this: our minds are divided, our wills are split and our
emotions militate against our deepest convictions
The
authoritative voice of Jesus brings the man back to himself. And
friends, this is precisely the effect that Jesus' voice has had up and
down the ages. When you allow his word to reach deep down within you,
you get knitted back together. When Jesus becomes the clear center of
your life, then your mind, your will, your emotions, your private life,
your public life—all of it—finds its harmonious place around that
center.
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