5. Father Clayton's Homily (1/28/24)

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- The Lord be with you.

(congregation laughing) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

(congregation laughing)(congregation laughing) Then they came to Capernum and on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

The people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

And their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.

He cried out, "What have you to do with us?

Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God." Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet, come out of him." The unclean spirit convulsed him 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 may obey him.

His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

The Gospel of the Lord.

(congregation laughing)(congregation laughing) There are two movements in these readings that we have today that seem at first blush to be rather contradictory.

We have in the Gospel people who are astonished and amazed are the words that Mark uses in the Gospel, astonished and amazed at the authority of Jesus that he is very clearly speaking and acting by the power of God himself.

But then in the Psalm and in the first reading, though we won't be able to talk about the first reading, we hear that despite that realization of God's authority and God's truth, it's a real possibility, it's a real danger that we can harden our hearts toward here.

So we have on one hand being so convicted by Christ and on the other hand, turning away from him and not responding.

Let's look at this.

So first the Gospel, Jesus first teaches with authority and what that means is that his teaching is coming up from within himself, that Jesus is not referring to other rabbis that he has heard before.

He's speaking from his own person by his own authority and what he is saying resonates deeply in the hearts and minds of his listeners.

They realize that what he's saying is true.

It speaks to their hearts, it moves them deeply and makes them experience the authentic presence of God.

And then Jesus backs up that authoritative teaching with proofs in action of his authority and he does something that only God could do.

He performs in exorcism.

And the people after seeing this exorcism are amazed, St. Mark says, and they say he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.

We see the incredible power of God at work there that God and his power are second to nothing.

Not too long ago I went over to have dinner with my family.

They were gathered for some special event and like as happens often enough I arrived late.

And then when I got there to my mom's place, I was starving, was so hungry.

As I walked in the door of my five-year-old nephew jumped up from the dinner table and he ran to meet me and he stood in my way and then he informed me that he was a ninja and that I was not allowed to enter the house.

And he raised up his little ninja hands to show that he was going to keep me from going in and getting dinner.

And so what I did is I grabbed that little ninja wrist and with one arm I picked him up and I threw him on the couch and I went over and I ate food.

That's the power that the people witnessed in Jesus.

That demon didn't stand a chance.

One word from Jesus's mouth and the demon gets thrown out of the man who was possessed like a five-year-old ragged-all ninja.

That Jesus's power is second to none.

And the people in the synagogue were astonished, it says.

But do they all become his disciples?

No.

They're astonished.

But do they do anything in response?

No.

How is that possible?

How is it possible for us that we're flabbergasted by the authority of Jesus, by the truth that he speaks?

And we don't respond.

How can we do that?

I think the key that unlocks that question.

That contradiction that we're seeing in these readings.

The key that unlocks it is love.

This is how great God's love is for you.

That that power that he'll use on a demon, he would never use it on you.

You have the ability to hear the authoritative teaching of Christ, to understand that he is God, to hear him speak as God himself, to know that his word is true, and yet still to say no, to resist.

And that resistance is what the Old Testament calls over and over again, hardening our hearts.

In the Psalm, if today you hear his voice, it pleads, "Hard and not your heart." Jesus will never compel us to love him and to follow him.

We always have the choice available to us of closing our hearts to him, of giving him no place within.

And the reason that we choose that, I think, is an absolute mystery.

I think that even we're frustrated with ourselves that we act in that way.

But I think that the words that come from the mouth of that demon in the gospel give an incredible insight into that mystery that we have all experienced in our lives about rejecting God.

And so just a quick parenthetical note, yes, demons are real and yes, they're very active.

And demons are at their core liars.

And the goal that demons have, the vast majority of us, is their goal is to plant seeds of lies into our minds.

And we see that happening today, as that demon is being expelled from his host in the gospel, as he's being shown for what he really is as a final act of rebellion, he plants a lie in the minds of all of the people who are in that synagogue.

And he says to Jesus, "Have you come to destroy us, Jesus of Nazareth?" And that is the fear that motivates our hardness of heart.

The fear is, if I open my life to Christ, he will destroy me.

He will take everything that makes my life happy and full and bearable.

So at its core, the lie goes like this, "God does not understand me.

God does not love me. And God does not want what is good for me.

Have you come to destroy us?" In 2006, there was a blockbuster movie that was released called Blood Diamond.

And it's a complex story, but part of that movie is a story that centers on a man in Sierra Leone called "Name Solomon." And Solomon has a young teenage son named Dia.

And at the beginning of the movie, Solomon's Son Dia is captured.

And he's forced to become a child soldier. And what you see in this movie is that the life of a child soldier is truly horrific, that they're forced to do terrible things. And they go and they do even more terrible things just in order to numb the pain that they're feeling.

So Solomon, this man eventually goes and he finds his son and he goes to rescue him. And there comes the moment toward the end of the movie in which Solomon encounters his son, Dia, after he has been gone, capture taken away from him for so long. And he realizes that all of that pain had changed, Dia.

The pain had changed his son. And Dia, when he sees his father approaching him, holds up his handgun and points it directly at his father.

The Solomon looks at his son and here's what he says. He says, "Dia, what are you doing? Dia, look at me. What are you doing?" And he goes on, "You are Dia Vendee of the proud men they tribe.

You are a good boy who loves soccer in school. Your mother loves you so much and she waits by the fire for you. Dia, I know that they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy. I am your father who loves you. And you will come home with me and you will be my son again." And Dia hears that. He slowly lowers his gun and he lets his father come up and embrace him. Sometimes, Hollywood gets it right. It's rare, but sometimes Hollywood gets it.

The reason that we harden our hearts against God is because we have come to believe the lie, that he does not love us, that he does not want what is good for us. And in our pain, we start thinking if I let Christen, he will destroy me. No. He's come to bring us home to the Father. So if today you hear his voice, hard and not your hearts, I want to finish with a question here. I want you to look at your own life and I want you to ask, where is that point of resistance in your own life?

Where is that area in your life where you have hardened your heart against the truth of Jesus?

What's the first thing that comes to your mind even as I ask that question?

I know, it makes me cry too. Whatever it was that came to your mind, that's the Lord's voice. He's bringing that to the surface. And it's there that he wants to meet you.

He showed you that part of your heart and he calls you to return. So how will you respond?

Jesus loves you far too much to force you to follow him. But he speaks to us today. He invites us to trust him and he invites us to open wide our hearts, to let him in so that he can lead us to new life.