Freed from Demonic Possession

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

 “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.” We don’t know exactly if this was a case of possession, or some other way that the daughter is being tormented by oppression and so forth, but the devil has all sorts of ways. This was, if this was a young child, that might not have been any guilt, or even could even been an older person, but that wasn’t necessarily any guilt on her part, but in some way, she’s being tormented by a demon. And we know many cases of people, whether it’s more rare case of possession, but whether it’s oppression, a bit more commonly, through seduction, and temptation, but all the different ways that the devil has a tormented us. And he hates, he hates each one of us. But he has a special hatred for children, for little children and because of the special love that God has for them.  And we sadly see that in our society where there’s such an attack on little children, where we just had the that the movie was, I forget what the movie is, but the movie on human trafficking and child trafficking.  But in so many ways, for instance, our modern technology, like so much of social media, is used to attack, spiritually attack children.   And so many parents and grandparents find themselves in this situation of agonizing over what has been done to the children and grandchildren, the way that they’ve been tormented by demons. But it’s a concern for our whole society today, for all of us, all of us know people who are being tormented in different ways by demons. Sometimes, the persons themselves aren’t even aware of it. But the demons are very active today. And there’s something shocking in this gospel, which seems so, so out of place in the Gospel. It’s that Jesus doesn’t seem to be listening to her. He doesn’t seem to take to heart or respond to what she says, and he seems to be ignoring her. And it’s, I think, in the gospel, the gospel is kind of presents in a very condensed way, but an experience which is often lived out over a much longer period, the trials of sensing that God is not listening. God is not listening to me. And how long had that woman been praying? How long had she been suffering this way? And how long had she been beseeching the Lord. And now, she senses that this Jesus is not listening, doesn’t care. And again, that’s a trial that we can have. The Gospel says Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. And then even when He does speak, He says, “I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And then, the woman says, what Jesus said to the apostles, “then when a woman came and did him, homage saying, Lord, help me. He said in reply, it is not right to take the fruit of the children and throw it to the dogs.” How’s that for an encouraging response? So it’s mysterious, why He doesn’t seem to be answering her. But this is a sign of the trials of faith that we can experience when God doesn’t seem to pay any attention to what I’m saying, to the important things that I’m asking of Him. And that can be very mysterious. But I think in this Gospel, we see some of the reasons that God can permit that trial, to help save souls. And that’s what’s going to be God’s saving action, which is working in this gospel through this trial. And at the same time, He is forming us and forming this woman. But there’s something else also in this gospel. This is a pagan woman. It says a woman, a Canaanite woman, and it’s hard for us to realize how much the Jews looked with antagonism, and often disdain and even disgust, on those peoples. And so there’s a lesson that Jesus is teaching His apostles in a roundabout way. Because what He’s actually doing at first, He seems to be disrespecting, and ignoring this woman, this pagan woman, and again, what that would mean for the pious Jew at that time was very strong. And actually, Jesus is wanting to glorify her, to glorify her, and to help break down the prejudice that His apostles would feel. So where He seems to be ignoring her, it’s actually to lead, to glorify her, so what can we learn from her. I think Jesus wants us to learn this pagan woman, who the apostles would have wanted to just exclude, on the contrary, Jesus has given her to us now, 2000 years later, as an example to learn from. Because this is a very important question, what frees from demonic torment? All the ways in which the devil was tormenting so much today, and how can a person be freed of that. And there’s a lot of superstitious beliefs, beliefs, complicated secret rites that need to be done. You know, the horror movies are always showing this, sometimes these esoteric magical rites that need to be done. And I mean, different types of superstition are very common. Like when I was in Mexico, many times people say oh, so and so suffering from the evil eye. And so they need to do a cleansing with an egg and take an egg and wipe the egg all over them, to cleanse them from this evil eye. So the Lord here is showing us that it’s not some type of secret magic formula that we need. And the fact here, and this is not to undermine the value in the importance of exorcist, which, especially in certain cases can be very helpful. But this also is showing things that any lay faithful can do, that you can do. So let’s see what we can learn from this woman. What the lessons are very simple. And that’s a big part of the lesson. The lesson that we don’t need something complicated and secret and magic. The lesson is very simple. The devil likes to confuse us with complications, and secret formulas. But what we see here is very simple. So what motivates the woman, the mother? She is motivated by love, not for herself, but for her daughter. So that’s the foundation that she’s motivated by love. And she’s also motivated, what brings her here, it’s also her faith in Jesus. She comes to Jesus, and trusting in His goodness, even when He seems to be ignoring her, even when He seems to be rejecting her. Even in those cases, she continues to put her faith in Him. So she’s gives an extraordinary example of faith in Jesus, not just when things are going well, but even when God doesn’t seem to be listening. So that’s your motivation, love and faith in Jesus. And so what does she do? She doesn’t go and try to find a sorcerer, or some witch, who can give her a magic potion. She brings, as she comes to Jesus. And if, in this case, it seemed like she can’t bring her daughter to Jesus, but she brings her daughter spiritually to Jesus. So she brings, she comes to Jesus. And so that can be a situation we face with people that we can’t bring physically to Jesus, but by our intercession, we because that’s what she’s doing here, she’s interceding. We can intercede for others. So this is showing us the power of intercession, made that the young girl maybe was not able to do this herself. And so that’s the case where we can be praying for someone who may not be praying for themselves. They may not care to pray to Jesus, they may not even realize that they have a problem. But we, by our intercession can bring them spiritually to Jesus. And so this is an example of the power of that intercession. And so how does she intercede? One thing we see here is her perseverance. She doesn’t give up. When God doesn’t seem to be answering her, even when God seems to be rejecting her, she perseveres in her faith. And another thing that’s extraordinary in her, is her humility. Even when the Lord says it’s not right to take the fruit of children give it to the dogs. And that’s even back then, that was even a much worse insult. Because a lot of you know, we think of dogs as man’s best friends, but they didn’t have such a warm idea of dogs. And so that’s a very, that could be a very painful insult. And yet she responds, she doesn’t get offended and leave. That’s would have been a normal reaction, right? Well, well, I thought you were the kind, merciful Savior. But she didn’t do that. She responded, she actually took that as a leverage, what seemed to be a put down, she used that to leverage her request, by increasing the humility of her request. So that’s an extraordinary lesson, using that to leverage by an act of humility. And that’s something that the devil cannot tolerate. The devil who is so arrogant, cannot tolerate humility. And so this, again, is that extraordinary lesson that this woman is teaching, when she seemed to be rejected by God. She used that as an act of humility. And so what is the result?  “Oh woman, great is your faith.” How many times did Jesus say in the Gospel to His apostles, and we just had an example things of last week, the week before, men of little faith, men of little faith, but here to this pagan woman, not to His apostles, to this pagan woman, Jesus is saying, how great is your faith. Jesus so often disappointed in a lack of faith, in His apostles, here is rejoicing at the faith of this pagan woman. How great is your faith. And in a sense, Jesus’s like revealing, we could say, like, the weakness of God, when His children turned to Him with trust, and love and humility, how powerful that is. You know, the whole, the charism of our little mission here is faith, so that God can act. And here we have a great example of that this woman’s faith, which Jesus was waiting for, so that His power could act to liberate this girl. So just to summarize that lesson, those simple lessons, it’s love and faith. So again, when we’re faced with the presence of the devil, the devil torments someone, that’s what this gospel is talking about, to see what we learned from this woman, her faith, motivated by love and faith in Jesus, and interceding to Jesus with humble perseverance. And so this reminds us of another woman who is so powerful, another mother, to intercede for her children, to liberate her children from the power of the enemy. And it reminds me of, I remember talking to a priest who had been involved in a very difficult case of possession. So he was involved in the exorcism and long difficult process, but at the end, at the end, the demons speaking through the possessed person said, “I’m leaving, because his mother makes me.” The demon didn’t want to say, the name of Jesus or the name of Mary. But he was forced to admit why he was leaving. “I’m leaving because his mother makes me.” And as demons have also said, in cases of possession, that they said, they fear the name of Mary, even more than Jesus, not because Mary is greater than Jesus, because Jesus is God and Mary is a creature, but because to be defeated by a creature, it’s one thing, to be defeated by God, but to be defeated by a humble creature is even more painful and devastating for his arrogance. “I’m leaving because his mother makes me.” So this is the Gospel we can put into practice right now in this Mass, with our Blessed Mother, to think of someone that you know, who may be tormented by demons. And if you can’t think of anyone, then just turn on a TV, and probably the first person you see will be an example of people tormented by demons. And then, this is an occasion to bring them to Jesus, to Jesus who will become truly present in this Holy Mass, to bring these persons to Jesus, with faith. And with humble perseverance, even if for a long time, it seems like God is not listening or responding to our prayers. Jesus we trust in you. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 15:21-28