If we could strip away the veil of our material world, we would discover that reality is thick with spiritual warfare. The Enemy and the evil spirits are real, constantly seeking to pervert the goodness of our world and our souls. Though today we may not encounter demonic possession as described in the Gospels, the devil resorts to subtler but just as potent means of attack. Every life is a spiritual drama, and our choices matter. Do we choose the way of life and light? Or do we lapse into the domain of darkness?
Either with Him or Against Him
Each day, all the cumulative choices of every person tilt our world by degrees either closer or away from the kingdom of God.
The stakes are real. While the gift of salvation has already been won for us by Christ’s sacrifice, it still has to be received and lived out by us in faith. Do we follow Him wholeheartedly, like a soldier under the banner of his king? Because if we do not, that means we have drifted into the Enemy’s troops. As Jesus declares boldly in today’s Gospel passage, “He who is not with me is against me.”
The Strong Man and the Stronger One
When I first read the Gospels years ago before my conversion, such verses ignited me with a desire to know more about Christ. The boldness of his claim fascinated me. Who was this person who asserted himself stronger than the strong man? Who insisted that either one was with him or against him? He left no middle ground for one to rest upon. The reality Christ reveals to us is one of distinctions, value, and meaning. If ever we were tempted to believe that everything is ‘all the same’ in the end, and that faith in Christ blends everything into an easy allness, today’s Gospel reading blows such notions out of the water. He desires our wholehearted yes and wants nothing to do with indifference.
Reclaim the House
The Gospel passage is striking in that it shows us Jesus’ deft use of logic to combat the accusations of those who reject him. After he heals a demon-possessed boy, some of the people try to insist that he does so by Satan himself. Jesus exposes the irrational nature of that claim, stating that it would make no sense for Satan to drive out his own demons. “A kingdom divided cannot stand,” Jesus explains. What follows is an unusual story of a house guarded by a strong man. That house, we realize, represents our heart, and with a certain horror we discern that the strong man is the devil. Whether we know it or not, Jesus implies, man’s heart is prey to the Enemy. In the fullness of time, however, the stronger man comes to reclaim the house. This stronger man, of course, is Christ, and in His strength we may find confidence. As the story continues, though, Jesus adds a detail which chills the soul: the soul from which an evil spirit has left, if it does not remain guarded, will then face a return of seven more demons worse than before.
Vigilance at the Door
If our heart is the house, who is the master? Do we recognize the knock of Christ at the door? Or do we fall lax in our attention? Do we end up opening the door to a new horde of evil spirits? Consider that there is nothing the Enemy wants more than to recapture a heart that has made the first steps of conversion. Happily, however, we may take confidence in knowing that Christ’s strength is immeasurably greater than anything the evil spirits could muster against us. The odds are stacked in our favor. We have only to embrace the mission of proclaiming our yes to Christ every day.
