Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Cycle B; 4th Sunday, Year B.-- Deliverance Ministry

“He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”

Jesus spoke in the imperative when he said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”

1.Authority is internal—in the Greek it means "out of (one's) essence"—essential. Like Jesus, whatever we do should be a demonstration, not of external power, but of our inner life and essence.

“I give you authority…over all the power of the enemy” - (Luke 10:19).

But we need stillness or recollection from deep prayer to effectively use it.

e.g. An old Franciscan priest quipped, saying that, the definition of a diocesan priest is “a man who’s always supposed to be somewhere else.”

We all have many duties and things to do.

Yet, inner Stillness is the vehicle or disposition for deliverance ministry: an undisturbed state of the mind; undisturbed from the passions; undisturbed from distractions in the environment. It’s powered by the love flowing from Christ’s wounded side on the Cross; it’s the Power-source of deliverance and healing ministry.

e.g. The Morning Glory consecration prayer calls the blood and water that flow from his pierced side an ever-renewing fountain of love and mercy that we can trust, especially when feel tired or depleted.

e.g. A man said that he watched a well-known church leader at an airport baggage carousel, exhausted after a full weekend of speeches and liturgies, get a request to be prayed over from a man who knelt down right beside Baggage Claim #4 in the world’s busiest airport: “As the conveyor belt spit out luggage, the priest prayed calmly, confidently, blessing this man he had just met. After lifting the man to his feet and sending him on his way, the priest himself was revived, radiant, pulsing with new energy. He grabbed heavy bags twice his size, flung them on the luggage cart and practically sprinted toward the parking garage” (Living by the Word by Don C. Richter).

The lesson is don’t jump too quickly into a life of sacrifice and service and miss the importance of first allowing the pierced side of Christ to pierce and fill our hearts, and we need a contemplative heart of inner stillness to best direct this power of Christ to those who need it.

2. Although Jesus spoke in the imperative when he said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”, the instructions in the Ritual of Exorcism say to always begin with the deprecative formula with the option of then using the imperative formula.

Deprecative prayers don’t command anything in the Name of Jesus, rather it means to invoke or ask the Holy Trinity or Jesus Christ for help in a situation.

We actually have deprecative prayers at Mass, spoken with complete confidence that the prayer is heard, e.g.: "Grant, we beseech You, Almighty Father, …".

All spoken prayers are powered, whether we realize it or not, with a conscious abiding union with our head "Jesus, because he remains forever, and is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he forever lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:24-25).

E.g. of a deprecative prayer in deliverance ministry--

Father Rosario Stroscio was a Roman Catholic Salesian priest and exorcist who was called in by the Archbishop of Calcutta to pray over the 87-year-old hospitalized Mother Teresa who had been hospitalized for heart problems. Mother Teresa was suffering from insomnia and acting strangely. The Archbishop said of the situation that, "when doctors said they could not find a medical reason for her sleeplessness, I thought she might be getting attacked by the devil." After Father Stroscio prayed over her, she was calm and slept peacefully.

Father Stroscio used a prayer found in the rite of exorcism, "I did not think she was possessed by an evil spirit," and so no formal exorcism took place. He used a deprecative prayer.

In conclusion, most of us experience at times what we may call harassment from evil spirits or demons despite liberal theologians who translate the language of demons and spiritual evil in the Bible into terms of politics or existential estrangement.

However, as Father Robert Spitzer notes, “all of us have some kind of an awareness of a mysterious good spiritual that is the source of our interest in religion and our quest for purpose and destiny beyond this life and this universe. But, there are other spiritual powers which are evil which contend against it – and so we – as spiritual beings are invited to join it – even heroically – to help the side of cosmic good over that of cosmic evil.”

The ordinary activity of Satan and his demons is temptation, which is nothing more than the attraction to commit sin.

God permits these temptations in order that we may overcome them by His grace, and thus practice virtue and acquire merit or reward in Heaven.

How are temptations conquered? By watchfulness, prayer and Christian mortification, and doing in our part in deliverance ministry.

Amen.