Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
St. Joseph’s Neier January 28, 2012
Rev. Kevin Schmittgens
Central Idea: Jesus shows us the way to deal with the demons of our lives, directly, simply and without the dance.
Boom. Swish. Moving on.
Often what we learn from the Sacred Scriptures is not simply what the Bible says, but what the Bible does not say, not only what is in the Gospel, but what it omits. Case in point, the incredible story of the man possessed by a demon in the Gospel of Mark today.
Let’s set the stage. Jesus is in the synagogue of Capernaum – a place I will visit on Wednesday. Suddenly, in a bit of a scary, almost horrific scene, a man possessed by a demon confronts him. As it happens throughout the Scriptures, it is the demons who know and recognize Jesus for who he is. This is where things get interesting, or should I say “mundane.”
Instead of a huge battle, with special effects and CGI and explosions and drama and light saber battles and eyes rolling back and everything that Hollywood can throw at this clash, Jesus, simply and plainly, tells the demon to come out. Boom. Swish. Moving on.
No drama, no explosions, no sword fights, no spectacle, no song and dance, no production number. Boom. Swish. Moving on.
What is amazing about this story is how there is very little story here. The titanic battle between good and evil, light and darkness is done in an instant without any excitement or fuss. This tells us that there is a new sheriff in town, Jesus is in charge.
But beyond that theological notion, Jesus offers us a model as to how we deal with our own demons, the people who are “possessed” in our lives. I am not suggesting that we run into demonic power in our lives, but we do face people who can push our buttons, who can get under our skins, who can drive us crazy. And Jesus’ dealing with a demon in a synagogue in Capernaum gives us a paradigm as to how to face them down.
First, be direct, plain and straightforward. Five words: “Quiet! Come out of him!” Jesus does not go through a long laundry list of reasons. He does not dazzle the demon with legalese and intricate argumentation. Five words: “Quiet! Come out of him!” When I do marriage preparation and we talk about parenting, I tell young couples to speak plainly to their children. Children do not do fuzzy very well. Tell them where the line is, tell them what will happen when they cross said line. And then follow through if the line is crossed. This week at school, our students, being the teenagers that they are, crossed a line. Someone wrote an angry email to me to complain. To be honest, they had a point. A line was definitely crossed. So, yesterday at Mass, I called them on it. I didn’t berate them. I didn’t humiliate them. I didn’t nag them. I told them plainly, directly, and in a straightforward way that they had cross a line, they did something, as a student body, fans at a basketball game, that was clearly wrong. Boom. Swish. Moving on.
Second, part of being direct is being unemotional. I like calling it being “matter of fact.” My students enjoy it when I lose it. It is a great spectator sport for them. They are much more apt to listen, much more apt to respond, if I keep my tone of voice moderate and keep my emotions in check. This is not the same as repressing one’s emotions, which can really mess one up. No, I still have emotional energy, I am a "Schmittgens" after all. But I channel it into something positive and even quiet. I can be especially forceful when I am very very soft spoken and hushed. They know exactly where I am coming from, they know exactly how I feel, it just isn’t as much “fun” for them.
Finally, and this might be the best advice I ever heard, and will ever impart, don’t dance. The demon wants to confront Jesus into a debate. “What do you want of us…?” Jesus doesn’t bite. People who like pushing your buttons see it as a sport. It is fun to get someone going, get them sucked into a debate, verbally spar with them. I call it "the dance." To be honest, at times, this could be a great teaching tool. But normally, it is just an annoying, exasperating, wearisome game that just generates more anger and frustration. It rarely solves anything. Don’t dance. Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should you. When I am correcting a student, often they will try to plead their case and some of them are going to make great lawyers. But before we go down that path, I stop them and remind them, that what we are doing is not a debate. If they want to plead their cause they can take it up with a higher authority (the dean of students, not the Pope), but I need them to do this and do this right now. Don’t dance. Don’t dance. Don’t dance.
So there you have it. In a span of two verses, Jesus teaches us how to deal with those little devils in our lives, simply, directly, straightforwardly and without any fancy footwork.
Boom. Swish. Moving on.