[Craic] Even the Demons obey him --reflection Sunday gospel reading.

[Greg Gillis]

Thank you Art, I really loved this reflection, it was very powerful and
timely!

Peace

Greg


On Sun, Jan 28, 2024 at 2:46 AM Arthur Blomme via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Hi y' all
>
> This is my reflection on Jan 27 Sunday gospel.
>
> Art
> ------------------------------
>
> He commands even the demons and they obey him.
> Arthur Blomme 24-01-24
>
>
>
> In this Sunday's gospel according to Mark, Jesus begins his journey to
> Jerusalem by casting out the unclean spirit in the temple at Capernaum.
> This event has little meaning in our society today. Ours is a
> technocratic worldview characterized by a mechanistic view of science
> coupled with a world view that makes the material so much more important
> than mind and spirit. For the most part our society considers the Demonic
> to be a fictional superstition. This kind of thinking obscures the
> horrendous reality of evil in our midst.
>
> In contrast the worldview of early Christianity was unified and holistic.
> Matter, mind and spirit are part of a continuum that is as a whole, real
> and important.  In this worldview, the casting out of demons was a much
> more meaningful part of Marks Gospel story than perhaps we experience today.
> For the early readers of Mark's Gospel demonic evil was a very real
> consideration.
>
> In this Sunday's gospel reading, it is apparent that the demon is separate
> from the humanity of the individual possessed by the unclean spirit.  The
> unclean spirit was a nonhuman being. For the early Christian, humanity
> was created in the image and likeness of a loving God. To be human is to
> have compassion, to know good from evil and have a conscience. We speak of
> barbarous events as inhumane, non human.
>
> Our thinking of psychopathy is similar to the thinking of demons in
> Mark's gospel.  Psychopaths have no conscience or compassion.  We sometime
> s speak of psychopaths as inhumane. Like the demonic, psychopathy thrives
> in the shadows.  When we shine the light of truth on psychopathy the power
> of the psychopath is diminished.
>
> Early Christianity saw the demonic in the social institutions. St. Mark's
> version of the crucifixion tells the story of how all the major political
> institutions of his day: the high priest, the Herodians (Roman proxys),
> the scribes, the pharisees and the zealots (Judas Iscariot) conspired to
> crucify Jesus.
>
> Institutions are not human and they have a life of their own. When acting
> on behalf of these institutions it is easy to go with the flow and set
> aside one's compassion and humanity to serve the ends of the
> institution.  This is how we can become possessed by the institution and
> participate in its psycopathy.  When good people do nothing the psychopathy
> of the institution prevails.
>
> The psychopathy of war is so well hidden by the false stories we are
> being told by a mainstream media.  We often fail to recognize the
> atrocious evil of war. There is the adage: “The first victim of war is the
> truth”. Now we are in perpetual war and the stories justifying atrocities
> are so thin. The stories being told about war cannot fool all of humanity.
> The dominant narrative can no longer contain the truth of these demonic
> acts.
>
> Attesting to this point is the demonic genocide and the ethnic cleansing
> of Gaza. Last week South Africa invoked the World Court of Justice to
> indict Israel for genocide in Gaza.  In the opening statement South
> Africa sites Netanyahu's use of ancient Jewish scripture to assert his
> intention to slaughter every man woman and child of Moab (Palestine).
>
> Despite the overwhelming evidence that this slaughter of men, women and
> children is taking place our Canadian government joins with other Western
> leaders to claim that there is no genocide in Gaza. Clearly our western
> leaders are possessed by an unclean spirit. They have no compassion for our
> Palestinian brothers and sisters. They have lost all sense of their
> humanity.
>
> The genocide of the Palestinian people is only the obvious, the tip of the
> iceburg. If we push back further the veils of deception, we can uncover
> so many more demonic atrocities perpetrated by our demon possessed national
> and world leaders. It is our fear that keeps these demons in the shadows.
>
> The good news is that we have no need to fear the power of demons or psych
> opaths. When the unclean spirit encounters the Light of the Universal
> Christ: ... the unclean spirit convulsed and with a loud cry came out of
> him.  All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching
> with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey
> him.”(Mk. 1:26-27)
>
> This is our faith.  Christ is resurrected and victorious over death and
> the demonic psychopathy of war and avarice.
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