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Monday, January 25, 2021
Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come
out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions
and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all
amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with
authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they
obey him.’ (Mark
1:25-27)
It is hard to know what to make of exorcism stories in
the Bible. Spirit possession seems to belong to a pre-scientific age when people
didn’t have more reasonable explanations for certain strange phenomena. But
maybe not.
Perhaps I have watched too many hours of news in
recent weeks, but it seems we need an exorcism. A variety of demons grip the hearts
and enslave the minds of modern Americans, but anger is the most obvious.
And yes, anger is a demon, not merely a psychological
state, when it blinds you to the needs, pains and humanity of other human
souls. It is a demon when it builds walls that prevent truths (often obvious) you
choose not to acknowledge lest they penetrate your mind and change your heart.
An old saying suggests holding angry grudges is like
drinking poison and expecting your opponent to die. Hold onto anger, savor and
feed it, and it sours into a bitterness that colors everything you see and
feel, killing your soul before ushering you to a grave earlier than otherwise necessary.
Like all demons, anger seeks to enslave us so that it
colors our vision, preventing us from feeling, receiving and sharing the Love
for which we are created, the Love who completes our souls.
The road to freedom involves introspection, noting
when and how anger rises within, seeking its real source in our hearts and
histories, realizing that it usually flows from old hurts, unhealed wounds and
threatened fearful corners of our hearts. Introspection allows us to understand
and begin to resist.
But this is not enough. Only prayer finally frees and
heals us: consciously placing ourselves in the presence of the Love God is,
opening the heart, becoming vulnerable, speaking our hurts and angry passions.
Prayer, first and foremost, is placing ourselves in
the presence of our loving God who is always present. It is opening the heart,
becoming accessible to the Love who is always there, eager to release us from
the anger that grips the heart. In prayer, the Love God is pours into us, or arises
within us by the Spirit, or both. It is hard to describe.
What is certain is that the demon of anger flees in disarray
in Love’s presence. Certainly, that anger may return. It didn’t get there in a
day and will refuse to die easily. But the Love who frees us is always there to
speak the word and free our hearts.
Pr.
David L. Miller
