Filling the Empty Spaces
Have you ever cleaned house only to find that in a short while, everything is messier than it was before?
"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation." - Matthew 12:43-45
The Gospel reading today reminds us that there is more to getting our stuff in order than clearing out the old, the unwanted, the bad influences. We need to replace them with something else, something better for our lives, or the old demons will come back, more vicious than before.
I know this is true when it comes to breaking a bad habit, like smoking. I had quit for nearly two years before I thought I could just have one or two cigarettes when going out and not get addicted to them again. I was wrong. The habit came back worse than it was before, and for years I smoked twice as many cigarettes as I did before.
It took a lot of work to quit for good after that.
In all, though, my addiction was nothing compared to the demons some live with. And yet, because there was a place for this demon to dwell within me, I need to make sure I don't invite it back in, for it may bring its friends.
What can we do to make a more permanent change in our lives, one that keep the evil out for good?
Jesus has offered us help in the form of the Holy Spirit, to live within us, occupying those empty spaces that could be broken into by evil.
It is an amazingly effective advocate we have in the Spirit, giving us the strength and the power to resist the influences all around us, if we let it.
We still have a free will, and it is possible for us to overrule the Spirit, to push it out or keep it suppressed. So, we need to want to change our lives for the better, and we need to draw on its strength to do so.
Now if we could only recognize the things that will lead us into trouble, rather than wait for them to become problems, we will have it made.
In the mean time, we can pray for that insight, for it is far easier to give up a small habit than a large one.
More to come...