Casting Out Legion
I’m old enough to have seen “The Exorcist” when it came out in theaters in 1973. I was in tenth grade. I don’t actually remember much about the movie, but I do remember jumping at every sound or moving bush as I walked home that night.
When we hear about demon possession today, most of us default to the scenes of that movie or some more recent, campy horror film. Set that aside – it is not reality.
Christians are “supernaturalists,” meaning that we believe there is a real world beyond this physical existence and that real, impactful things happen there. God is primary, but the Bible is clear that while there is only one God, there are many more spiritual realities, forces, angels, demons, etc. that impact our lives.
Sunday’s Gospel lesson tells the rather dramatic story of a man possessed by demons, banished to live among the tombs outside of town, who was healed by Jesus casting the demons into a herd of pigs, which then ran headlong over a cliff and into the lake where they drowned. Click here to read it.
It is difficult to know what to do with a passage like this in today’s world. How do we find the truth between the Hollywood ridiculousness on one end and flat denial on the other?
I think C.S. Lewis was on the right path when he wrote (in the Preface to “The Screwtape Letters,” 1942): “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”
I believe that full on possession of the type described in the Gospel lesson is actually quite rare. But I find lots of instances where we are influenced or controlled by various forces outside ourselves, demons or alcohol and other addictive substances, pleasure, vanity, accolades, jealousy, unforgiveness, and on and on.
Most of us will never be in a position to cast a “Legion” of demons into a herd of swine, but we all deal with these “demons” in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. What can we learn from this account to help us deal more effectively with the run-of-the-mill demons we all face?
Sunday, June 19, 10 a.m., in-person and livestream!
This column appeared in the June 19, 2022 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.
If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.
