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An Enemy has done this

16th Sunday : 20 July 2014  : Matthew 13: 24-43

That phrase, "an enemy has done this" in this morning‘s gospel begs a number of interesting questions. Is it true that the fork tailed person is active in our affairs? What is the nature of evil? To what extent are we autonomous moral agents, or are we divided selves? What is going on when we ask God to set someone free from evil and restore them to wholeness of life? These are all good questions to be asking in a Church where the ministry of healing is offered in a low key way in the Lady Chapel altar during communion each Sunday. If I manage to shed light on any of them I will consider myself well satisfied.

Two theological giants stand at either end of the spectrum of the Christian community‘s thinking about evil. St Thomas Aquinas with his hopeful, optimistic view of human nature, derived from Aristotelian philosophy, saw evil as parasitic on good. It has no positive content. There is nothing within it to commend it or to make it attractive. It feeds off good. We are lured into bad moral choices because we choose an inferior good. He defined evil as the absence of a good which could and should be present.

At the other end of the spectrum stands St Augustine, whose passionate nature and Platonic philosophy inclined him to a more pessimistic view of human nature. Augustine was struck by the reality that often we cannot motivate ourselves to do what we know is the right thing to do. It is as though we are internally warring against ourselves, sabotaging what we know is in ours and others long term interests. Often our selfish and self-destructive behaviour is a mystery to us.

Augustine would have thought that those who advise the morally fallen to pull themselves together had a somewhat shallow analysis of the situation the human race is in. He had an intimation of what 20th century psycho analysis would spell out. That we are in the grip of powerful unconscious drivers. That the conscious self only has a limited understanding of who we are, and why we do what we do. That our efforts to change are powerfully resisted by forces that do not wish us well. Augustine was clear about what we needed to get us out of this dilemma – Divine grace. His famous prayer, arising out of his struggle to be chaste, is this, "You have commanded chastity, grant what you command, and command what you will."

Augustine had a sense that evil has an active, malignant reality behind it, as though at times there was some kind of personal direction behind it. In a century that has had to try and explain the mystery of evil at work within Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot this point of view has received a powerful boost.

Since the era of the enlightenment we have been keen to bring order, rationality, control, and instrumental solutions to every human tragedy. But how do you make sense of the Columbine High School shooting, and all the other nihilist nutter mass gun homicides that have followed it? Aren‘t we pushed towards the conclusion that there are some people who commit evil acts, who hurt, and humiliate, and kill because they love it. And it is not the case that the perpetrators of these deeds always came from bad homes with inadequate socialization. Sometimes serial killers can be the beloved children of caring parents.

Reflecting on my own life experience there are only a handful of people I have ever met who immediately gave me the feeling that they were inhabited by evil. And in 35 years of pastoral ministry I have never come across a situation where I felt an exorcism was in order. But I do not rule out the possibility that it might be necessary one day. As for the devil, I have come to be convinced that old Nick is indeed actively involved in the unseen spiritual realities of the world. He is radical evil personified. So at the renewal of baptismal vows during the Easter Vigil I find it entirely appropriate to ask the congregation:

Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin – Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness.

I believe there are evil forces around operating in an unseen way both collectively and individually. I can’t help noticing that it is just when an individual or a community or a parish tries to make a change for the better that a whole lot of inexplicable setbacks, accidents and unlucky incidents can often occur. These incidents are about more than the turbulence generated by the bow wave of change. It is as though someone or something is trying to throw us off balance because the last thing that this unseen reality wants is for us to be happy, healed and whole. It is as though every time we reach out to take things to the next level in terms of sorting things out in our lives we can just about expect some sort of counter attack to try and drag us back to where we were. It seems as though there is some sort of unseen spiritual struggle that goes on every time we, as it were, raise the stakes by trying to put things right?

Churches are always keen to grow in numbers, in spiritual vitality, to develop effective ministries into their surrounding communities, and to become an influence for good in their culture and society. While they may take account of the energy, and the drive, and the ideas, and the resources to bring this about, there is a follow on consequence that they often fail to reckon with. Trouble often comes in the wake of churches that have become spiritually alive, who take their stand on the power of the gospel, and who mean business in spreading abroad the good news of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world we live in has turned away from God, and it doesn‘t care to be called back to its creator. The spiritual forces of evil that lurk behind the structures of greed and foolishness in human communities are always prepared to kick back against any community of faith that looks as though it might upset the shabby status quo that suits them. In effect spiritually alive churches have gone looking for trouble, whether they know it or not.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar calls this the law of proportionate or progressive polarization. He points to the fact that when Christianity has been at its most potent and vital it has often been challenged by the rise of religions that deny the sovereignty of Christ, or by the development of philosophical systems that put human rationality and autonomy in the driving seat instead of God. The law of proportionate polarization has an almost inexorable logic to it – the more spiritually switched on you are, and aligned with the mind of Christ, the more there will be a counter prevailing reaction to your newly one spiritual effectiveness, stemming from the hornets nest of surrounding spiritual nullity. It is a reality that works out at the macro, the micro, and the intermediate level. It applies to individual Christians, to local churches, and to worldwide churches and to Christian civilizations.

So I have learned to be on my guard when things are on the move for the better. And I am prepared to use a wide variety of tools to deal with the situation. The behavioural sciences, addiction theory, the pharmacological revolution, problem solving skills, political interventions, and yes if necessary prayer, fasting and exorcism. For I am clear that God is in the business of liberating the creation from disorder and distortion. He invites us to use all the marvelous resources made available by the 20th century knowledge revolution to do that, and also the authority granted to his Son and made available to us in the Church to deliver and to heal. The New Testament is not interested in demonology. It just lets us know in a matter of fact way that there is this other resource at hand which can be used when it is appropriate.

And that is the place which I have got to in thinking about what goes on in the business of healing. That it is the process of the bio, psycho, social and spiritual restoration of a human being back to wholeness. That it invites the contribution of a variety of helpers and healers to make it happen. That doctors can address the immediate biological and physical factors that affect our health. That psychiatrists and social workers can address what is going on in terms of our brain chemistry and our affairs of daily living. That spiritual leaders can address what goes on with us in the realm of spirit, so that it is possible for us to enjoy the same sort of outcome as the Gadarene Demoniac, who as Scripture says, "sat at the feet of Jesus sane and in his right mind." And I am also clear that the kind of spiritual leaders who are active in the ministry of healing or deliverance should be people who are not seduced by the glamour and the paraphernalia of the supernatural world. They should be people who treat the unseen world of Spirit with respect, while remaining uninterested in the Devil and all his works. We are here to just get on with the job of being effective channels for God‘s restoring, life giving grace at times and places when it is appropriate for us to be so. Jesus Christ is the one who does the healing and the delivering. Sometimes we get to be the agents by proxy of that continuing work, in company often with a number of other dedicated healers. But above all if you are involved in the healing ministry it is essential that you have an active prayer life.