The demons show us what a human soul would be like without love: they warn us about the choices we make. Homily for Tuesday Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Hebrews 2:5-12, Psalm 8, and Mark 1:21-28)
What is it like to be a demon?
Film and TV can give us some very funny ideas about what it’s like being a demon. They’ll show happy demons who take real enjoyment in torturing the souls of the damned. They’ll show misunderstood demons; they just have a job to do but they aren’t really evil! If you watch Lucifer on Netflix you’ll see a fun, entertaining, suave, crime-fighting demon. If your head was filled with ideas like this from the media, today’s Gospel is a stark reminder of what it’s really like to be a Demon.
Jesus enters Capernaum and preaches in the synagogue; there he encounters a man possessed by a demon. The Demon asks him “what do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Demons exist in constant agony, because they know exactly what God is (love) and they know that they have utterly rejected Him. They could have lived with Him, in His love, and instead live knowing what they have lost. The reason they torture souls is the same reason we lash out when we’re in a bad mood; misery loves company! When they see Jesus, they know exactly what He is “We know who you are, the Holy one of God” but they cannot see Him as anything but a destroyer; because they are without love, they are incapable of seeing him as a Saviour.[1]
Human beings and angels share something in common; from the moment God made us, he made us with the power to know and the ability to love.[2] The demons, the fallen angels, rejected love. This picture then shows us something important; the demons show us what a human soul would be like without love.
St Paul writes in 1 Corinthians “If I have not love, I have nothing” (13:1) because if having faith means anything at all, it has to mean love. Even the devils believe in Jesus;[3] they know who and what He is, they know he is the Holy one of God. But they cannot be saved by Him because they are devoid of love. They can only see him as a destroyer.
So as we begin this week, we ask for the gift of Charity, of divine love, to be renewed in us; that we go out from this Mass to live lives of love for God and for one another. So that, at the end of our lives, when we stand before Jesus, we won’t see the fearful judge and ask “have you come to destroy us?” but instead see what Paul says in our first reading; our brother, our sanctifier, and our Saviour.
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