1 Cor 2:10-16 / Luke 4:31-37
Whenever deliverance or exorcism is mentioned, we may think of something dramatic happening, much like what we see in the movies.
We may think of images of the possessed person shouting and other weird things happening.
We probably got these impressions from what we read in the gospels about how Jesus cast off devils and evil spirits.
One such instance is in today's gospel when the evil spirit that possessed the man shouted at Jesus.
But Jesus said sharply, "Be quiet! Come out of him." And the evil spirit came out of the man without hurting him at all.
We may not have seen such things happening, especially in church. We don't expect such things to happen in church of all places.
But that doesn't mean that there are no evil spirits around. But if Jesus gave the Church the authority and the power to cast out evil, then how is it happening?
In a less dramatic way, but certainly in no less a powerful way, we see it happening in the Confessional.
People who have heard the Word of God and have opened their hearts to the cleansing and healing Word, will realise the sin and the evil in their hearts.
They go for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and there Jesus cleanses and casts out the evil in their hearts, and they are healed and forgiven.
Let us also listen to the Word of God and open our hearts to the Word. And when we realise the sin and the evil in our hearts let us go for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
There we will be cleansed and forgiven. That is the power of the Word of God, and that is also the power and the authority that Jesus has given to His Church.