Readings:
• Num 11:25-29
• Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
• Jas 5:1-6
• Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
What do demons, sin, death, and damnation have in common? An obvious (and correct) answer is that all of them are, put bluntly, bad. They have a certain, even close, relationship to one another. Another answer is that each is a topic usually avoided in conversations around the water cooler and over morning coffee. In fact, they are sometimes given short shrift in homilies and sermons.
But today’s Gospel prominently mentions all four. Needless to say, it is a challenging and difficult reading. Yet it is the sort of passage too often ignored or downplayed, resulting in a skewed understanding of both the mission and message of Christ.
Jesus and his disciples took the existence of demons for granted; they also took them seriously. The discussion in Mark 9 about driving out demons is just one of about seventy references to demons in the New Testament. What is unusual, however, is the context: the disciples were complaining because someone who “does not follow us,” they told Jesus, was performing exorcisms. Jesus reminds them that such a deed can only be performed in his name, and such faith could not come from a foe. Since men can only be for or against him, the benefit of any doubt should go to those who exhibit love for and faith in Christ. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, “None of those seeking to be saved will be lacking in this ability,” since salvation is a free gift from God.
That expansive explanation of how good done in the name of Christ should be acknowledged is followed by some of the strongest language in the Gospels about avoiding sin. Two terms stand out: scandal and Gehenna. “If your hand causes you to sin”—literally, scandalizes you, “cut it off.” Scandal, the Catechism explains, “is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.” Those who give scandal by words or actions can destroy spiritual life. “Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense” (par. 2284). It is, G. K. Chesterton summarized nicely, “the tripping up of somebody else when he is trying to be good.”
Momentary physical pain cannot be compared to the eternal spiritual torment awaiting those who continue unrepentant in their sins. Gehenna symbolized such torment. It was a steep ravine southwest of Jerusalem where, many centuries before Christ, some Israelites had sacrificed “their sons and daughters to Molech” (Jer. 32:35), a pagan god long associated with such horrors. Gehenna was desecrated eventually by the righteous King Josiah (2 Kngs. 23:10), and became a smoldering garbage dump filled with trash and animal carcasses. Needless to say, it offered a powerful image of an eternal hell filled with undying worms and unquenchable fire.
Speaking of hell is never fashionable or enjoyable. St. John Chrysostom said of this passage: “Ordained as we have been to the ministry of the word, we must cause our hearers discomfort when it is necessary for them to hear. We do this not arbitrarily but under command.”
One of the great sins of our time is the deliberate and self-serving destruction of human life, especially what Pope John Paul II described as “the scandal of abortion.” Such a grave scandal exists because men—even those living in Western democracies—have “lost the ability to make decisions aimed at the common good” (Centesimus annus, 47). Benedict XVI, in his encyclical on social doctrine, wrote, “To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity” (Caritas in veritate, 7).
Justice requires every man be held responsible for his sins; it rightly asks each pay for his moral deficits. Yet we are unable to. As today’s reading from the Epistle of James makes clear, wealth cannot save us. Nor can power or fame. Salvation from demons, sin, death, and damnation is found only in the name of Jesus Christ, the author of life (Acts 3:15).
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the September 27, 2009, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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Besides the four mentioned in the article: another talking point taken off the table is purgatory. The last time I heard, the word wasn’t to be mentioned at the local cathedral. Apparently we all go straight to heaven these days. What an absolute disgrace! The Church Suffering doesn’t receive the full support it needs from the Church Militant. To a large extent: I put it down to a loss of the sense of God’s Transcendent Majesty. This is also reflected in the liturgy. Mum died recently. Besides all the prayers: the first thing I did was to arrange to have nine Masses offered for her, through Aid to the Church In Need. Everyone’s a winner. Mum gets any support she needs. A priest in real need gets some support, and I have the God given privilege of doing something for both of them. Mum may have received from me the best gift I have given her. More Masses to come. Thank you CWR for allowing people to have their say.
Stephen in Australia.
Stephen,
I do partial indulgence work every week at night…Thursday e.g. more than an hour non stop. You need to inquire of your pastor how to prepare to obtain a plenary for your mom (not guaranteed but possible). I say ask him because he may tell you that she obtained one if she passed without a priest since the Enchiridion of Indulgences now grants that to unassisted Catholics who prayed during life but I’d rather you talk to him. The hardest part of obtaining the plenary is not the central work (that can be a half hour of Bible study) but the detachment from all sin including venial is the hard part…that and Confession is hard if you have just robbed a bank with no video tape running..and purchased a new Audi. Just kidding. But Confession and Communion and detachment from all sin and the work involved (the half hour of Bible study is always available as one) can obtain a plenary for her but your pastor may tell you to get one for yourself because she has one. I was given an experience of purgatory for three days when I was transferring from total self to spirituality in my early 20’s…no visions….no locutions…but constant suffering from above and had to pray literally constantly…unless sleeping. It never happened again because it had done its work of transferring me out of darkest attachment to this earth. But its why I do hours of partial indulgence work for murder victims, accident victims, dead criminals in the hope that many reached purgatory which itself is no joke…no joke. There are less contemplatives perhaps these days and God picks some earthly guys like myself to fill in while not being really detached like real monks but certainly able to empathize with those in purgatory. Think of joining his little army of indulgence pleaders in the world. You do not have to do those prayers with deign and other baroque words in them. Saying and doing the sign of the cross is my only work and is approved by the Enchiridion. I do hundreds in a week most times and it is similar to the repetitions in my hobby of conga drum playing. The long prayers is not me but they might be you. And you will be welcomed one day into everlasting dwellings by those you did indulgence work for. See Christ in the passage of the sinful manager who reduced what others owed his master so that when he was fired, he could be received into their dwellings. Luke 16 is impenetrable in one point but I suspect Christ was saying make friends of sinners who loved mammon too much but made it into purgatory through final repentance…reduce their sentence…and they’ll say hello one day in heaven and they’ll thank you for reducing what they owed to God. I do many for teen suicides…grave matter yes…sufficient reflection maybe not…a will not overcome totally by emotion maybe not. You can obtain several plenaries from the one Confesssion/Communion but must repeat the work involved and the detachment from all venial sin. That latter is where God enters and helps you greatly
and I did 7 plenaries one Spring for myself and relatives who had died (you cannot do them for other living persons)…and those you do for the dead might or might not be accepted by God because He may know that justice demands that a certain person get a hurting so to speak…a cleansing hurting…but it will be a hurting nonetheless. They’ll know they are getting out of it in time but that does not erase the awesome level of suffering…a level all its own.
Thank you Bill from the bottom of my heart, for your interest and advice. I have often enjoyed reading your comments. As for Bible reading: I would be lost without it. I strongly believe that what you do is very pleasing to many. Maybe even more than you realise. Concerning mum: God was so gracious as to grant me more than I prayed for. I was right by her side from 9.00AM until 11.00PM when she ended her sojourn in this valley of tears. She was anointed that morning. Very consoling. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you concerning what Saint Thomas said, about the sacraments drawing their power, from the love of Jesus as He was dying on the Cross. I was praying for her, and telling her how much I loved her the whole time. Also asking her forgiveness for the times I played up. There is much more I could relate. However, I will finish by saying that, although without speech or the power to move, mum gave me a clear sign that she knew I was there by her side. Thank you once again.
Your brother in God’s Covenant Family.
Stephen.
Wonderful privilege you had…awesome post…thanks.
Beautiful and edifying exchange between the two of you. Thanks for posting.
we have so many fallen away Catholics in the U.S. They all come for their parent’s funeral and if that is the last parent to go there is no one to offer masses or other sacrifices except for those set up during the wake period etc… It’s usually only the suggested $10, and the money ends up in the church coffers anyway, so I often ask for a mass for these deceased.
Amen on this.
What is so sorely needed in sermons.
A very good article!
God bless you Carl Olson for your work.
Temporally timely, considering the pope’s diatribe on demons and our politicians’ scandalous stance on abortion, the common good, a perceptive intellect, etc., etc.
Thank you, Mr. Olson.
“Carl Olson’s Eternal hell filled with undying worms and unquenchable fire” is a fearsome reminder John Chrysostom knew he must, a fear that awakens me during the night. And a reminder to fulfill my calling to intervene for the faithful. To get out of bed and pray. Fear is something I’ve fought all my life, and here self reference has value because we’re all made of the same clay. Fear, fear of Hell can be a good thing. Resisting soul quivering fear can be heroic. Our finest example Jesus sweating bloodlike drops at Gethsemane. Example of a lesser but still example is that of two men who are my models in the fight, FDR and Teddy Roosevelt. FDR, frightened to death waking paralyzed fought that deathly fear and became great. His priceless jewel is the truth, The only thing we need to fear is fear itself. We objectify fear making it a reality beyond its emotive form. We suffer panic attacks, an increasing malady [loss of faith a likely factor] making many dysfunctional. Teddy Roosevelt says he fought fear from youth, the unknown cause [again that form of objectivity] haunting him his entire life, always staying one step ahead of his demons. In doing so he became a great man, a true heroic humanist, detailed in River of Doubt offering to be left to die that the other explorers might survive. Love that conquers real demons. Men in combat, the heroes who don’t remain in their foxholes likely, again being self referential are the ones who fight fear and win glory for themselves, and for God as was the heroic chaplain Capodanno. Fear of Hell [even purgatory as commented here] can bring about good when fought for a noble cause. Nothing is more noble than to lay down our life that others might live. A thought each time I raise the Eucharist. Some question why suffering and fear should be required although in this life Christ reveals its necessity for salvation [Fr Damian De Veuster is a favorite]. To enjoy lasting happiness in another world we endure suffering and possible death first of all to reach that heavenly realm. Fear and the avoidance of eternal Hell becomes secondary, I mean emotively when through abeyance of fear, suffering we’re purified and motivated by Love itself.
Thank you Carl for this beautiful explanation of the day’s readings.
Jesus told Saint Faustina to get up at night to pray the divine Mercy Chaplet for this dying man to save him. I pray a Mercy Chaplet for all souls who come before the Judgement Throne that day. The divine Mercy Chaplet offers up body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus to the Eternal Father, the FATHER OF MERCY.
This, too, from St. Faustina:
“I often attend upon the dying and through entreaties obtain for them trust in God’s mercy, and I implore God for an abundance of divine grace, which is always victorious. God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly it seems as though everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment, while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of contrition, because souls [ed. at that stage] no longer react to external things. Oh, how beyond comprehension is God’s mercy!
“But–horror!–there are also souls who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn this grace! Although a person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God. But sometimes, the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose hell; they [thus] make useless all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them and even the efforts of God Himself…” (Divine Mercy in My Soul, the DIARY, n 1698).
And, we must remember that God hears us now in his eternal moment–such that prayers said for those long gone are actually heard not now, but back then at the time when they needed it in their last moment (as above). With God it’s never too late.
Peter, what you have shared here is, for me, a constant source of HOPE. We must never despair of our loved one’s salvation but trust in the mercy of our loving Father. Thank you!
Judas Maccabeus following a battle found that his fallen soldiers were all wearing talismans, idols taken from the Jamnites and certainly forbidden. Nevertheless, Judas collected money and had it sent to Jerusalem to offer prayers for the remission of their condemnable sin. An indication why the Catholic Church offers constant prayers for the dead not simply for those in Purgatory.
This doesn’t imply that there aren’t souls in Hell, which scripture indicates there are. It merely states that we cannot know the infinite good of God toward souls presumed condemned.
Until the so-called Enlightenment the existence of the spiritual world was taken for granted. In our “modern enlightened” time we have no use for angels and demons and relegate them to the children’s book shelf along with fairies and elves. Oh how foolish we mortals be! The Gospel is clear. We are engaged in a daily battle, and those who do not fight will be lost eternally. Now, more than ever, we must redouble our efforts and enter the fray full-on. Go to Confession, receive Communion frequently, and pray constantly. If you don’t, it’s highly likely you will spend eternity in Hell.
Thank you Carl, for all you do to encourage and support us in our journey to Heaven.
The 1st commandment to love God, often forgotten. I read this in the catechism: “incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved (is not saved!). He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but in ‘body’ not ‘in heart'” CCC 837). GOD IS LOVE, and He wants love.