Develop holy habits. If you want to grow in the spiritual life, to grow closer to the Lord, the best way to do that is to develop holy habits. The spiritual life is similar to the physical life. In the physical life, if you develop healthy habits (eating right, exercise) then your physical health will improve. In the spiritual life, if you develop these holy habits, then your spiritual health will improve and you will grow deeper in your relationship with the Lord. On this Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, let the words of the Gospel below inspire you to seek out these holy habits.
Jesus and Beelzebul & The Return of the Unclean Spirit
Now he was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons”; while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” Luke 11 : 14-26
Scriptural Analysis
Having spent the first part of Chapter Eleven of Luke’s Gospel teaching the disciples how to pray we now see Jesus in action. He is casting out a demon from a “dumb” person. The Greek word used here, kōphos, can also be translated as deaf and mute which is a better choice than dumb. This particular miracle happens to be one of only five that we will hear about in Luke’s central section covering the journey to Jerusalem. For comparison’s sake, we heard about seventeen miracles during Jesus’s Galilean ministry. In the Galilean miracles the typical response revolves around understanding Jesus’s identity. In these five miracles during the journey to Jerusalem, the miracle is recounted with more attention to the ensuing dispute: the rejection of Jesus which will intensify as he approaches Jerusalem.
The miracle starts with the crowds being amazed just as with previous miracles. However, the crowd raises two objections to the miracle. The first is that by the power of Beelzebul he drives out demons. Second, in order to test him (peirazō, which is the same Greek used for the Devil tempting Jesus in chapter 4 of Luke) others ask for a sign from heaven. There is also a tie here back to the Lord’s prayer where the same Greek word is used, “lead us not into temptation” (peirazō is often translated temptation in the context of the Lord’s prayer). In today’s passage we see Jesus addressing the first objection.
To accuse Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebul showed the level of resistance that the crowds had to Jesus as well as their faulty reasoning. Luke begins Jesus’s rebuttal by first noting that Jesus knew their thoughts. This is added to signify that Jesus is a prophet. Jesus reveals their faulty reasoning by pointing out how a kingdom divided against itself will fall. Additionally, knowing that other Jewish exorcisms have occurred, that others have drive out demons, Jesus turns the question on them and asks them a rhetorical question, “by whom do your sons cast them out?”
Rather, Jesus casts out demons by the finger of God. This phrase recalls the word of Pharaoh’s magician after the plague of gnats, “And the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’” (Exodus 8:19) Jesus has indicated previously that God’s power was at work in his miracles. This also calls to mind the roll of Messiah as a new Moses leading a new Exodus.
Jesus then offers a parable to further clarify his response. He gives us the story of a strong man guarding his palace but then a stronger man comes along and overthrows him. Satan is the strong man in this parable and Jesus is the stronger one who comes along and overthrows him. Thus Jesus overthrows Satan and divides the spoils: the fulfillment of Isaiah:
Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued Surely, thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. Isaiah 49 : 24-25
Jesus give a further warning to the people with the story of the unclean spirit who returns. The spirit was driven out previously but it eventually returns: even brining along seven additional spirits so that the person ends up with a worse condition. The idea is that one cannot remain neutral as a home cannot remain unoccupied for long. One must pray to the Father to be filled with the Holy Spirit otherwise that space remains for the devil to come back.
Daily Application
Most of us are not nor have we ever been possessed with a demon. Additionally, we have never encountered someone possessed by a demon or been part of an exorcism. That certainly make’s today’s reading a bit more challenging to relate to. I think the key point in the reading is in the last line of the text, “the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” The man had an unclean spirit, a demon, driven from him. However, he failed to fill up that void left behind with the Holy Spirit, so the demon was able to return and he brought friends this time.
There is an old idiom, Nature Abhors A Vacuum, attributed to Aristotle. The basic idea is that every space in nature needs to be filled with something. In the spiritual life, this idiom most definitely holds true. As we grow in the spiritual life, we can’t simply push out the evil and not occupy it with God. If we push out evil but don’t allow in the good, the evil will return: it is just a matter of time. This does not apply solely to instances of demonic possession. This applies to all of us as we try to grown in holiness.
Intuitively we know this as this rule applies to so much in life. For example, if you were out of shape and you begin to exercise and get in shape you notice improvements in your health and well being. However, if you stop the exercise, you slowly begin to lose those improvements in your health and well being. The spiritual life follows the same pattern. If you begin to develop more holy habits (more time in prayer, more frequent reception of the sacraments, time with the word for example) you will notice improvements. Sins you were previously struggling with become easier to say no to. However, if you let up on those holy habits, those struggles with sinful urges return.
The key for all of us is to adopt holy habits and to have them stick. The way to make that happen is to not try to go from where we are today to where we want to be in one step. At the start of each new year people all over the world make resolutions to change. The problem is these resolutions are often massive changes. If I have never exercised on a regular basis and then all of the sudden I commit to exercising 90 minutes a day, seven days a week, the chance of success if low. Additionally, if I miss a day, the chance of that throwing me into a tail spin that makes me give up is great. What we need to do instead is commit to small changes: I am going to go walking 3 evenings a week. That is a much smaller commitment but it becomes much more attainable and much easier to stick to until it becomes a well formed habit. It creates a foundation for continued growth.
On this Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, we can recognize one of the best holy habits is praying the Rosary daily. If you do not currently do this, it is a great place to start your journey in the spiritual life. Praying the Rosary takes 15 minutes, can be done easily at home, and can be worked in around whatever you have going on in your life. It is a prayer that reflects on the Gospel drawing us more deeply into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is perhaps the easiest holy habit to commit to. This is why countless saints throughout the years have recommended it.
Once you build up a firm foundation there, it becomes easier to add other things: more prayer time, more frequent Mass attendance, praying the Liturgy of the Hours. These all require greater effort and thus are harder to do without the firm foundation daily prayer of the Rosary can provide. Now, that does not mean this is going be easy. There will be days where it is hard to pray, you won’t feel like praying, and there will be days you miss praying it all together. The key is when you don’t feel like doing it, do it anyway. When you miss, don’t punish yourself which is a tactic the devil uses to get you to give up entirely. Rather, commit to getting back to it the next day.
Develop these holy habits. They will help you grow in the spiritual life and ensure that evil has no way of coming back in. The more you do them the closer you will become to our Lord.
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