Father Ken’s Message:
Good afternoon and welcome to the Catholic Cathedral of Sapporo. I am Father Ken the pastor of our English Mass Community. Unfortunately, today I am at a different parish in Sapporo saying Mass so you will have a Communion Service. I hope you have a good experience at our Cathedral. May God bless your visit to Japan and to our beautiful City of Sapporo.
A few years ago, a friend came to me and asked me to help him get rid of his demons. He wanted to pay a psychic on the internet do some magic to remove them and he needed to use my credit card to pay her. I did help him but we lost contact so I do not know if his online exorcism worked or not. I suspect it did not but he had trust in this psychic. While I have no faith in online psychics my friend’s confession of being possessed by demons was an amazing revelation of what was happening to his inner self, he was out of control and seeking control. The Gospel of St. Mark that we are reading this year in “Year B” of the Catholic Church liturgical calendar claims that Jesus’ mission was precisely to fight demons and the devil. Jesus is the ultimate exorcist for God. There are 14 exorcisms in the Gospel of Mark and in today’s Gospel reading is the first one.
Talking about demons and the devil seems a conversation that should take place around Halloween or while watching a scary movie. However unpleasant this topic seems, we must talk about this awkward “elephant in the room” because demons and the devil does affect us and society. The key question throughout the Gospel of St. Mark is “who is Jesus?” Only one person who eventually discovers the secret about Jesus’ identity, it is a Roman soldier standing next to the Cross on Calvary. The other ones who know Jesus’ true identity are the demons and devils in the Gospel story. They call Jesus by his title, “the Holy One of God” (messiah). Neither the learned Jewish religious leaders, nor did the 12 disciples understand who Jesus is. This is quite fascinating. Most probably the demons and devil knew Jesus formerly in their life in Heaven before the battle by which the rebellious demons and the devil were exiled to Earth. Interestingly Jesus after each exorcism tells the demons and devil to be silent about his true identity; it is the “messianic secret.”
Us “modern” human beings in 2024 like to think we can explain everything in a scientific and rational manner based in evidence. So, we think being possessed by demons and the devil is associated with some type of mental illness or the side-effect of addictions or stress in life like damage from trauma. But people 2000 years ago, did not have this understanding or denial of evil. Jewish people in Jesus’ day lacking medical and scientific knowledge of diseases blamed illnesses on evil forces (demons and the devil) or on the negative effect of personal sinfulness. The healing therefore had to be spiritual in nature by a holy person. The good news coming out of all the 14 exorcisms recorded in the Gospel of St. Mark is that no evil force, no power of hell, no fallen angel, no disembodied spirit can withstand the power of Almighty God which is incarnate in Jesus as a healer, and exorcist and as the Son of God.
With this background on Jesus in the Gospel of St. Mark we are challenged by him to help overcome evil in our world. So, we today are entering into the work of Jesus of bringing the Reign of God into fulness by kicking out the demons and the devils. Someone once said that if we are not leaving the world a better place by overcoming certain evils, we will have failed our calling as Christians. How can we overcome evil? We are most aware of moral evils but physical evil is also everywhere. For example, do we recognize evil in the homeless, the poor, the mentally ill, the alienated, and the lonely friend? The devil and his friends spend their time destroying love and goodness in the lives of people and organizations like the Church. So, whenever you see chaos happening to individuals or in society you can assume the devil and his team are at work to turn people away from God. Of course, this anti-God movement started when Adam and Eve fell into temptation away from God’s will. The remedy to get rid of demons and the devil is with goodness and love. That is the model of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. At the beginning of 2024 Jesus is inviting and teaching us to also be exorcists to overcome the evil in the world through love and good actions.
A month ago, at Christmas little baby Jesus was found in a quaint manger in Bethlehem surrounded by angels, but a month later Jesus is a grown man by demons and the devil. Because this is Jesus and our mission to rid the Earth of evil and liberate us human beings of demons and the devil once and for all. We modern Catholic Christians cannot be blasé to demons and to the devil. Will good be able to overcome evil? Will demons be cast out? These are the question of St. Mark’s Gospel already asked two thousand years ago. Movies and comic books present all types of characters that incarnate different evil: monsters, extraordinary creatures, bad characters, and even natural catastrophes. Wrestling with demons is part of the human condition. Maybe this is even what defines us. Being human is being engaged in a struggle to make good things happen in difficult, adverse, and sometimes terrible circumstances. Being human is striving to remain loving in the face of adversity and evil. Jesus and Mary’s life stories showed how to embrace life’s challenges with faith in God and love for one another. They had special vision to see and recognize the presence of the demons and the devil. Our own inner demons and the devil hide in us, in our families, in workplaces, and in our organizations and political systems. When a person acts out in an unpleasant way, we don’t like to see it or hear it. But that is exactly the time to do the exorcism of evil; it is the cry for help, it is a time to love. So, in the Gospel of Mark, for Jesus, it is not a bad sign when the demons and devil show up, it is worse not to see them, pretending they are not with us, making believe that everything is fine and we have it all together. Sin is calling “good” what is “evil” and to call “evil what is “good.”
We all also want freedom from the powers that dominate our lives. Some of us turn to superstition, psychics, charms, horoscopes, etc. for direction and help. There are a lot of things that promise liberation and end up making us slaves or addicts. The power and authority of Jesus is the only power on earth that does not want to dominate us, he wants to free us up to live and love. What Jesus did for the poor possessed man in the synagogue the Gospel he can do for each of us. We all like to feel we have control over our own lives. Let us use our power to trust Jesus. He alone can save us. Thank you. Fr. Ken