Demons Among Us

Gospel: Mark 1: 21-28

Unless one has actually worked in religious institutions, the presence of a demon in the midst of a religious assembly seems shocking.  This story of a man possessed by a demon in the synagogue is shocking, but not because the demon is present there.  We are more shocked at how those in attendance are more shocked that Jesus took the time to expel the demon from the religious assembly than the fact that the demon was there in the first place.

How often is it the case that we grow comfortable with the demons in our midst.  We grow accustomed to gun violence, the violence of the government against its own citizens, the unjust wars, the animus against immigrants and outsiders.  We accept the scandals in our churches, the hypocrisy, the idolatry of money and power.  We even become apologists for such things because we cannot accept the idea that we are wrong and have made an indecent choice.  

But Jesus comes to expel the demons from our midst.  He later commissions his disciples to do the same.  Today's reading invites us to reflect on the demons we have grown to abide in our midst, to have the desire to have them removed, and to take up the work of the Lord Jesus to remove these demons from our lives and from our assemblies.  Do we want the demons removed from our lives, or have we grown comfortable with them?