Sunday 15 July
Mark 6:7-13 • Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Sometimes it can be hard to read even the Gospels because of our twenty-first-century mindset. For example, if we reflect on today’s reading, we are immediately struck by the fact that at the heart of Jesus’ sending out of the apostles was the conferring upon them of the ministry of deliverance. They were given the power and authority to cast out evil spirits. So here in the very first verse we encounter something of a hurdle: the belief in the existence of demons or evil spirits which needed to be cast out. Current thinking tends to regard such symptoms as resulting from psychiatric disorder or mental illnesses and looks to psychiatrists for the answer. Yet Jesus’ disciples ‘cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them’ (v. 13).
The idea of a duality – good versus evil, the power of God versus the power of the devil – is not a way that we tend to think these days. The problem is that the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church have thought like this from the very beginning. Indeed, around the world on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday, we renewed our baptismal promises and renounced Satan, the Prince of Darkness. So, here is the question: are these empty words, devoid of meaning and simply part of a liturgical ritual, or are we indeed rejecting a being called Satan or the devil?
Thankfully we don’t simply rely on our own light and reason on this matter – we have the teaching of the Church. The Church has always taught that evil is real and that the devil exists. Although a powerful adversary, he cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign and we overcome him through the cross and the name and blood of Jesus.
Furthermore, like the apostles, priests, by virtue of their ordination, have received the ministry of deliverance and exorcism. God preserve us from priests who do not believe in the devil or his power. They wrongly assume that belief in the devil is a medieval notion but if that were true, why does the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published in 1994, so clearly teach of his existence and with great wisdom and authority show us how to be victorious over our foe?
Lord, it is a great mystery that your providence should permit diabolical activity, but ‘we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him’.
Amos 7:12-15 • Psalm 84(85):9-14
Ephesians 1:3-14 • Mark 6:7-13
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