Look, didn’t 2025 virtually start out with it?
That is, mention of evil in the readings at Mass.
“Whoever sins belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the beginning,” said the first reading (1 John 3:7-10) on January 3. “Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil.”
Re-read that last sentence: We’re told, by Scripture, that a main, if not the main, mission of Jesus was spiritual warfare.
Yet how many times do you find the topic—demons, deliverance, unclean spirits—addressed in the homily that follows a Gospel reading on the subject?
In far too many parishes the answer is “just about never.”
It’s time our Church, and much of its media, ask themselves: “Why?”
The readings, and often the Gospel message itself—sometimes for days in a row—discuss Jesus casting out evil spirits, and then the homily veers onto some other, apparently more comfortable topic.
This is one reason sermons so frequently lack the Holy Spirit.
Too many are embarrassed by the supernatural. Too many may at times be fearful. Too many have become intellectual-rationalized. Thank God for the many great priests we do have. Preach also how with Jesus, there is no fear.
The Gospel two days later (January 5, 2025): “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed Him” (Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25).
Crowds were attracted to what?
To what they saw Him do to spirits; to deliverance; again, to the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that demons are prevalent in this world or perhaps even doubts their existence is not fully following the Christian faith.
The word “demon” (in the Greek form “daimonion”) is mentioned more than sixty times in the New Testament, with the majority of these mentions appearing in the Gospels (from which homilies are supposed to spring).
If you count other terms, like “unclean spirits,” “devils,” foul spirits,” and so forth, then you’re at more than eighty. The Bible just about starts with Satan in the Garden.
“We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One,” we were told at Mass on January 11 (1 John 5:14-21).
How about a homily focused just on that theme?
The reading on January 12:
“He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:34-38).
When we actively purge evil, He is likewise with us .
On January 14: “Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’
“Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet! Come out of him!’ The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
“All were amazed and asked one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him.’ His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee: (Mark 1:21-28).
We thusly see that exorcism was largely how Jesus got so well-known.
Yet, more often than not, it goes unmentioned; sermons, opting for modernism, veer off course.
“Do not forget the works of the Lord!” was the Responsorial Psalm on January 17.
“When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to Him all who were ill or possessed by demons,” we were informed the next day (January 15). “The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and He drove out many demons” (Mark 1:29-39). This was just the first two weeks of the new year!
This month?
“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits” (Mark 6:7-13) is an example.
No need to beat this to death. The point is made.
Will that point, however, reach the right ears?