UNCLEAN SPIRITS

Tuesday, 22^nd Week in Ordinary Time           

            In today’s gospel story, a man “with the spirit of an unclean demon” meets Jesus. And then the gospel tells us that Jesus drives out the unclean spirit. He does this through the words, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”

            Each of us, to some extent, has “the spirit of an unclean demon” in us. By that we mean that we have something in us that keeps us from being the kind of person we would like to be.

            We may have something in us that keeps us from praying the way we should pray. It may be the things we are too busy about or too preoccupied with – which prevents us from spending enough time in personal prayer.

            We may have something in us that keeps us from trusting the way we should trust. It may be too much worrying due to our lack of confidence in God’s providence.

            We may have something in us that keeps us from loving the way we should love. It may be our lack of sincere effort to make ourselves more loving and more lovable.

            We may have something in us that keeps us from serving the way we should serve. It may be our unwillingness to leave our comfort zone to get personally involved in the mission of our parish.

            We may have something in us that keeps us from being generous the way we should be generous. It may be our selfishness or our refusal to accept and live by the principles of stewardship.

            “The spirit of an unclean demon” we are referring to is anything that hinders us from becoming the kind of person God wants us to be and from experiencing the kind of life God wants us to have. It is anything that prevents us from following Jesus and from becoming like Jesus. Now, just as Jesus drove out the unclean spirit from the man in today’s gospel passage, the Lord wants to drive out every unclean spirit from us. He wants to free us from whatever is keeping us from being as prayerful, as trusting, as loving, as serving and as generous as we should be. This is the good news for us today.

            So, let us approach the Lord in this Mass and open our hearts to him. Let us allow him to take from our hearts the unclean spirit and replace it with the Holy Spirit.