Greater is He that is in You!!!!!

1 Cor 4:9-16

Matt 17:14-22

10th Sunday after Pentecost

Demons. People often mistake demonic activity for natural phenomena, or with mental illness. That’s what the father in our Gospel reading does. In some translations, he says that the boy has seizures, or that he’s epileptic. In others, he says that his son is a lunatic.

How does Jesus respond? “You people!!! You just don’t get it, do you? Can’t you see that there can be a spiritual cause!!! How much longer will I have to put up with your unbelief?? Ok, bring him to me”. And, probably to the father’s surprise that it was not physical, Jesus casts out the demon.

Is our world today any better? I don’t think so.

Yeah, demons are the stuff of horror movies, or maybe a joke on a TV series. But how many of us, including Christians, really understand what they are and where they come from?

Let’s get one thing clear. There’s a popular misconception that God and Satan are of equal power, equal authority. That’s a belief called Dualism, and nothing could be further from the truth. Remember the beginning of the Creed? “I believe in God the Father Almighty”. There cannot be two almighties.

Satan, whose name means “accuser” or “adversary”, was originally called Lucifer, which means “light bearer”. He was the most beautiful of the angels. But he rebelled. He got too big for his britches. HE wanted to be God, if you can believe it. He recruited fully a third of the angels to his cause, and they rebelled. And they fell. Jesus says in Luke, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”.

When I was an Evangelical, one of our catchphrases was “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. Well, Scripture tells us that Satan hates us and has a terrible plan for your life, and your eternity. He hates man because God loves us. He was the serpent who tempted Eve in the Garden, and the Book of Revelation refers to him as “the huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan”, and it goes on to say “the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus”.

Yes, Satan hates us, as do his angels, his demons. As Peter wrote, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour.”

So, what do we do?

First of all, remember the words of John’s first epistle. “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world”.

How do we tap into that, though? Jesus tells us that, if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains.

A mustard seed is tiny. It’s 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter. That means that you can line up as many as twenty in a row to make an inch. Jesus is telling us that even the smallest amount of faith, if it’s strong, can work miracles.

How can we develop that type of faith?

Jesus’s answer: This type only comes out with much prayer and fasting.

Before his crucifixion, Jesus sent out seventy disciples to preach the gospel. When they returned, they told him that even demons obeyed them! He had already taught them to pray - they know the Lord’s Prayer. But he gave them the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Mind you, these men, the seventy, were not priests. That sacrament was given after the Resurrection. No, the authority these men use was the authority given to each one of when, at our baptism, we are baptized as priests, prophet, and king. We are priests, not of the order of Melchizedek like Father Mihai, but a Royal Priesthood. As Peter writes, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. It is our duty to proclaim his mighty acts.

And, sometimes, that results in demonic resistance.

Now, let me warn you, only bishops and priests deputized by them have the authority to deal with demonic possession of an individual, to perform an exorcism. But personal attacks by demons, both physical and psychological, and every other type of demonic activity, even simple temptation - we have the authority to oppose them.

Will the demons object? Absolutelty, they will object. They may do all sorts of things, including affect your emotions, even try to beat you up. That’s why we should pray for protection from retaliation. And the Holy Spirit, and the good angels, will protect you. Believe me, they will.

And how do we prepare for this?

The first thing is the Sacraments. Frequent confession and communion. Satan and his demons hate that, because it makes them powerless.

Specific prayers are wonderful, powerful weapons in the battle. Fr Gabriele Amorth, the late Chief Exorcist of the Diocese of Rome reports, “During an exorcism, Satan told me, through the possessed person, ‘Every Hail Mary of the Rosary is a blow to the head for me; if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!'”

And the Chaplet of Divine Mercy repeats the action of the priest in offering the Sacrifice of the Eucharist to the Father. Can there be any more powerful prayer?

The last thing to mention here is fasting. Just as Christ’s prayers were strengthened by physical suffering, so our prayers are strengthened by fasting.

Starting Thursday, we have the Dormition Fast, leading to the feast of our Mother’s Dormition. Consider joining in it, using the fast to combat the demonic attacks against the world and in your own life.

Prayer, Fasting, and the Sacraments. Potent weapons against Satan.