January 22, 2006

Casting out the Spirit of Impurity

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Fourth Sunday, Year B, Jan. 22/06

The title of my homily today is “Casting Out the Spirit of Impurity.” For the last 3 weeks, our Second Reading has been taken from Chapter 6 and 7 of St. Paul first letter to the Corinthians on sexual morality, marriage and celibacy.

And in the Gospel, we are told that Jesus casts out an “unclean spirit.” The Greek word translated as “unclean” is “akathartos,” which can also be rendered as “impure.” Mark the Evangelist is speaking of an unclean or impure spirit, meaning an unholy, evil spirit that is hostile to God. I am stretching the text just a little bit to go from talking about an impure spirit to a spirit of impurity. There is a connection here: an evil spirit can influence or enter a person through various sins, one of which is the sin of impurity or lust. So that’s the title of my homily: “Casting out the Spirit of Impurity.”

I will discuss a few ways to cast out the spirit of impurity. First of all, in our weakness, we need the grace of God that comes to us through prayer, the Eucharist, confession, and the Word of God, which will be my focus today. We also need to appreciate the strength given to us by God to silence the voice of the tempter, to turn away from sinful images in a diet of the mind.

Try to imagine this scene in the synagogue in Capernaum. What was Jesus preaching about when he was interrupted by the possessed man? Perhaps he was saying, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God -“ – “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?!!!”

“Yes, I have come to destroy you, and I will cast out the spirit of impurity from the hearts of my people, to free them from their slavery, to give them back the freedom of the children of God. Be silent, and come out of him!”

Jesus casts out the impure spirit with an authoritative word: “Be silent and come out of him.” God’s word still has power today to cast out the spirit of impurity. Consider first of all the power of words to shape our memory and imagination. Has anyone here read The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia without or before seeing the movie? (PAUSE). Would anyone say, ‘Oh, it’s a waste of time to read the book. You have to see the movie.” ?

Of course not. Because the words in the book inspired our imagination, so we all had a picture of Frodo and Aslin in our heads even before seeing the movie. Therefore, if the words of a mere novel can shape our imagination, how much more will the Word of God which contains the Spirit of God cleanse our memories and fill our imagination with the presence of God?

Even today, God’s authoritative word can cast out the spirit of impurity and fill us with his presence IF we take time to read the Bible and IF we really desire to personally meet Christ in the Scriptures. Steve Wood, the founder of St. Joseph Covenant Keepers, has written a booklet entitled “Breaking Free: 12 Steps to Sexual Purity for Men” (available for free on our pamphlet rack). The fifth step is “Begin a Life of Daily Scripture Reading.” He speaks of the unparalleled power of God’s word to displace sinful images and fill our memories and imagination with God’s presence.

Jesus casts out the spirit of impurity, but not just for those who have some obvious sexual addiction, because he invites us all to ever-growing purity: “Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God.” The Catechism states, “purity of heart enables us (my addition: not only to see God, but also) to see according to God . . . it lets us perceive the human body – ours and our neighbours – as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty” (#2519 ).

Isn’t that an attractive virtue? We should all long for this purity, and recognize there is a battle for our hearts and minds – to be filled with the spirit of the Holy One of God, and not the spirit of the world. The spirit and the flesh are opposed (Gal 5:16ff) and you cannot serve two masters. Do you want to be a servant of Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God, or a slave to the spirit of impurity?

To be successful in this battle, we need to recognize both our weaknesses and our strengths. We are weak and we need Christ. Through prayer. The Eucharist. Confession. Scripture. And so on.

But we must also claim the strength that God gives us, the authority that Christ gives us in our baptism as children of God, so that we too can fight the spirit of impurity and say, “Be silent!” Whatever our temptations – not just to impurity, but to pride, anger, fear, depression – we don’t have to listen to and give in to the voice of the tempter. We too can say, “Be silent. I’m not listening” and turn away, and turn to God. It is also very effective, in that moment of temptation, to repeat that simple prayer on the Miraculous Medal . . . “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

I will end with this illustration. Has anyone here seen the movie, “A Beautiful Mind”? (PAUSE) How does the main character, a schizophrenic, deal with the temptation to listen to and interact with his imaginary friends? (PAUSE) He practiced what he called a “diet of the mind.” Using the strength that comes from God, he would ignore these voices, images, temptations. If he looked to the periphery of his mind, he could see his imaginary friends standing there, looking sad because he didn’t want to talk to him. But he would ignore them. A diet of the mind.

We too can have a beautiful mind, a pure spirit, a chaste body. If we confess our weakness and rely on God’s help, and use the strength he gives us, Jesus can conquer in us and cast out any spirit of impurity, so that we can enjoy the freedom of the children of God and in unhindered devotion be servants of Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God.