1st Passiontide 2015, Toward the Light

Driving Out a Mute Demon, Wikimedia

1st Passiontide

Luke 11: 14-35

Jesus was driving out a demon from a man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.” Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now if I were to drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers do it? Therefore, they shall be your judges.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, it follows that the kingdom of God has already come to you.

When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted, and divides it up as spoils.

He who does not unite with my being is against me; and he who does not gather in inner composure with me [work for inner composure with me] scatters.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, ‘I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.” When it returns to this dwelling it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that man. And his final state is worse than the first.”

As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you.”

But he said, “Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there.”

1^st Passiontide

Luke 11:14 – 28

March 8, 2015

This gospel reading is a wake-up call. Present day humanity is under a great deal of duress. It has become easy for us to wish for an all-powerful, magical ruler who will set everything to rights. But the problem, as Christ puts it, actually lies within us. As does the solution.

We are estranged from our own true being, deaf to higher inspirations. So rather than searching for salvation from without, we need to be willing, like Christ, to take the path of descent, to ride out the hard road of suffering. We need to be willing to change our own inner ways. We can develop the capacity to see and hear both ourselves, and the world, clearly and impartially, with inner equanimity.

In this way, the light of the Risen One, who shines in the depths of every human heart, can illuminate every circumstance in which we find ourselves. He will help us drive out our inner demons so that a clear light, awakened by His Word, shines out from the depths of our being. As David Whyte says:

…the lightest touch,

…

a whispered healing arrival,

a word in your ear,

…then, like a hand in the dark,

it arrests the whole body,

steeling you for revelation.

In the silence that follows

…you can feel Lazarus,

deep inside

even the laziest,

most deathly afraid

part of you,

lift up his hands

and walk toward the light.[1]

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[1] David Whyte, “The Lightest Touch”, in River Flow: New and Selected Poems