In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel we see very clearly once again that in the presence of the Lord, evil cannot remain. Time after time we see that when the Lord comes into the presence of evil, it is immediately unnerved, causes a disturbance, and has to go. However, it does not automatically go. The evil has to be removed by the Lord. It requires that the Lord act visibly. He speaks. He touches. The Lord acts, and the paralysing and enslaving action of evil is scattered.
How do we know that evil is active in our life ? If anyone thinks that evil is not active in his or her life, then that person is full of pride and blinded by that very evil. In fact, that is what happened to the devil in the first place – he wanted the first place. The devil, who was the prime angel of light before his fall, considered himself to be equal to God. He was blind to the difference between himself and God, and in this blindness he became separated from God. All this happened faster than the blink of an eye. He separated himself from God in deciding that he was the same as and equal to God Himself. He separated himself from union with God. He continues to this day in the very same delusion.
How do you and I know that evil is active in our lives ? There are plenty of signs. I am not going to get technical. However, if there is confusion, that is a clear sign of the devil’s activity in our heart. We do not usually speak about confusion as being such a sign, but in fact, it is a prime sign. You and I know who we are in the Lord, and where we stand. We know where we are going and we know right from wrong. If there is confusion, I do not know very well any of those things. If I do not know clearly who I am, I have been deluded. If I do not know that I am loved by God, I have been deluded. If I do not have peace in my heart, this is also a sign of the activity of Big Red. If I do not have peace in my heart, I have been destabilized by Big Red. If I have continuous anger and hatred in my heart, I have been taken in.
We can forget our sense of direction because we forget the ABCs of living the Christian life. We forget to read the Bible, and we forget to pray. We forget to practice love between us and we forget to recognise Christ in our neighbours and in our friends. We forget to look for the activity of Christ’s saving and touching of your life and mine while we are working, while we are at home, while we are walking down the street, and while we are shopping. We lose track of what is what, where we are going, and how we are supposed to live. We lose track of the fact that we are Christians. We put all sorts of adjectives in front of our Christianity to dress it up and give ourselves excuses for misbehaving. The Lord will not accept any of these excuses. He will not accept any substitutes for the life in Christ. He will not accept any sort of substitute for the living out of His love.
We forget what submission means, as well. The submission that Saint Paul speaks about in the reading today is the same sort of submission that he speaks about everywhere else, but it is we who misinterpret it because we are so broken. The image of submission that pops straight into our mind is that of some poor wretch grovelling on the ground, wringing his hands and saying : “O master, master, don’t chop off my head”, or something like that. This is the submission of slavery and fear that usually is in the front of our minds. However, the submission that is given to us by Christ in the Gospel is the submission which comes with love. The plain facts are that in our relationship with God, in our relationship with Jesus Christ, you and I will not find our salvation unless we submit ourselves to His will. You and I cannot get away with having our own way, with making everything in accordance with our own standards and patterns. We cannot get away with it. Because we have the strong tendency to insist on doing everything our own way, we undermine, destroy, distort, twist and smash the image and the plan of our Lord, God, and Saviour for us.
The Lord wants us to love Him first of all. We know from our human experience that if we love someone, then we try to do the very best we can for that someone. We offer our very best always to that someone. When people have lived well in marriage for a long time, it is clear that this mutual offering of self, of love, of service to each other is active, productive, and life-giving. I have seen people who have been married for sixty years, and couples married as long as that have been deeply in love with each other. They are deeply concerned about each other, and deeply interested in the health, welfare and salvation of each other. They have mutually built up, strengthened and nurtured each other. They have truly been a sign of how Christian love operates. If you know how it works in a good marriage (especially if you are one who has been married for a long time and have lived this way with your spouse), you know that this is what happens, hard times or no hard times (there are always hard times).
The way love properly operates is to do all that is possible to give life, to nurture, to strengthen, to heal, and to build up – that is the sort of submission that we are apeaking about. It is the submission of love, the conformity to God’s will as it is seen in the Gospel and as it is acted out in the Gospel. The Gospel is not a fairy tale. It is the beginning of the common experience of Christians which continues to this very day. It is the experience of how God loves you and me infinitely. He cares for us and saves us on the street, in the air, and at sea. He is involved in our lives. He blesses us, protects us, renews us, and encourages us. He sends people out of the blue for no particular, apparent reason to say something to encourage, heal, strengthen and help us when we are feeling particularly blue and distraught.
Thus we must do for the Lord and for each other and look to the welfare of each other. Let us look to building up, nurturing and strengthening each other. Let us read the Gospel so that we can live the Gospel. Let us read the Gospel so that we can encounter Jesus Christ more and more, not only in the Gospel, but in each other so that we can live in love.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord says to you and to me : “‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow Me’” (Matthew 16:24). What are we doing in response ? Do we take up the Cross ? Do we take up the Gospel of Jesus Christ ? Like Judas, do we give Him a kiss and deny Him and betray Him ? There are only two ways : the way of repentance from sin, like Peter who denied but repented ; or the way of death, like Judas who denied, betrayed and did not repent. There are only two ways. On which path are you and I walking this morning ? On the way of life in the love of God ? In His love, let us love God above all, and in doing so glorify the all-holy Trinity at all times and in every place and in every way : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.