Christ and Satan

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 86 (85):3, 5 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.

Collect God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Psalm 144; Luke 4:31-37

Then Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God! Be quiet! Jesus said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out! And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area. (Luke 4:31-37)

Christ and Satan One of the sensational scenes in John Henry Newman’s novel, Callista, is that of the sudden possession of Juba by a demon (ch.23). Newman depicts the demon as having assumed the form of a strange, crawling animal at the beck and call of Gurta the witch. Juba, haughty against God and against the devil, yet often tinkering with the demons and the occult, had just insulted Gurta. With a whistle she summoned the uncouth animal to her. Taking it into her arms she suddenly flung it at Juba. Struck by the animal, Juba was hit by a shock, and within minutes the demonic possession began to prevail. Newman proceeds with a gripping account of the loss of mind, of will, of all that allowed Juba to have command of himself — Satan took over. God had judged, and a demon was allowed to do its terrible work. In the last chapter of the novel (ch.35) the possessed Juba is brought struggling violently into the presence of the martyred body of St Callista. St Cyprian is nearby, the celebrant of the Eucharist. Juba is made to touch her feet with his hands, and with a shriek he is delivered of the demon. As Newman puts it, “the evil spirit had gone out; but he was an idiot.” It was the first of the miracles that followed the martyrdom of Callista. Juba attached himself to the church, and though he could be taught very little, he was not troublesome. At the end of ten years in this condition he suddenly went to the bishop and asked for baptism, saying that Callista had restored his mind. It was so, and he was baptized. The next morning he was found at the tomb of Callista, dead. Why do I mention this? I mention it only to show the powerful and devastating effect of the entry of Satan into a person. In the fictional Juba’s case it followed deliberate pride against God, man and against Satan too. Yet he tinkered with Satan himself. There was a real case of Satanic entry — and that was with Judas, one of the Twelve, no less. St John tells us that during Last Supper itself Satan entered Judas. Then he went out into the night. He had descended into the darkness, and its final result was his own hanging of himself. Our Lord said that the Devil was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

In our Gospel passage today our Lord enters the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach — as was his custom, it seems, during his public ministry. One of the notable features of the general situation as described by the Gospels is the frequent case of demon possession. There is nothing of this described in the Old Testament books. Indeed, the devil is rarely mentioned there at all, let alone his possession by many in the general population. But in the Gospels Satan figures frequently, and makes his appearance immediately on John the Baptist’s public identification of Christ as the Messiah. We read that Christ then went into the wilderness and was tempted by the Devil. In our passage today Christ taught in the synagogue with authority and dramatic effect, and the congregation was profoundly moved. It seems to have been too much for the demon which, to that point, had been quietly in possession of a man in the synagogue. It bellowed out at our Lord, obviously in agony at the spectacle and presence of this Man of the ages. “He cried out at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God!” It was helpless before him, and its proud helplessness drove it to reveal its presence among the people. We have no indication of whether — as in the fictional case of Juba, and in the factual case of Judas — the unfortunate man was just hapless or indeed culpable in being possessed. On one occasion Christ exorcised a boy — so we must presume that demon-possession was not always due to sin and dallying with Satan. But whatever be the circumstances, it is evident that Satan did evil to the person over which he had some control. Now, in this case, what do we see? At a mere word from Christ, Satan is sent packing from the man in the synagogue. Moreover, we are told explicitly that the man was left unharmed. “Be quiet! Jesus said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him” (Luke 4:31-37). It shows the power, the goodness and the beauty of Christ before the evil one.

One of the discoveries of modern science is that the universe if very, very vast. The human race is vast. The natural world is vast. But we learn from revelation that the unseen is much more vast. Consider the countless generations of souls that have passed on from this life and are in one of three states: heaven, purgatory, or — horrible thought! — hell. Consider the numerous angelic spirits who serve God and who have been and are Angels Guardian of countless human beings now and in the past. Consider the great and canonized saints now in heaven. Consider the great God, Father, Son and Spirit. Consider the baleful demonic world. Let us make our choice. Our choice is for God — now, today and forever!

(E.J.Tyler)

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