HOMILY WEEK 27 05 – Year II
Holding Nothing Back:
Optional Memorial of St. John Leonardi
(Gal 3:6-14; Ps 111; Lk 11:15-26)
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“After Jesus had cast out a demon…”
This Gospel passage seems to refer to Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons. Visionary Ann Catherine Emerich claims after Jesus had converted Mary, she relapsed and her last condition was worse than the first. But through the prayers of her sister, Christ converted her again, driving out seven demons this time instead of just one.
Sometimes we tend to unlearn lessons we have learned, only the second time it is seven times harder than the first. Mary Magdalene went on to become a saint. What is this incredible power accomplishing such a radical transformation in the human heart?
The liturgy today invites us to give our hearts and wills to the Lord, holding nothing back, that we may reign with the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We all know the cruel servitude of what Jesus calls the slavery of sin – that despite our best efforts we can’t manage to kick a bad habit or develop a healthy one. We have all heard stories of someone who was sober for many years, but for some reason, in a weak moment, gave way to the temptation to take one drink, fell back into the throes of addiction, and lost everything, including his or her life. As the saying goes, “One drink is too many, and a thousand are not enough.”
Where human effort is helpless, Jesus says, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” What we are so powerless to do, God can accomplish with His proverbial pinky. And if the Son sets us free, we will be free indeed with the glorious freedom of the children of God.
But how to prevent another relapse? The moral of this parable about the seven demons seems to be that when we reject sin, we have to replace it with something. Nature abhors a vacuum. Indeed, when St. Paul talks about dying to sin, he speaks of living for God in the same breath. Which says that all of the passion and energy and time and determination that we put into sinning in our past, that same passion and energy must now be fully devoted to the love of God.
That is why the Commandment says to love the Lord with our WHOLE heart, mind and strength, for if any part of our heart is not given to the love of God, it becomes a point of vulnerability through which the enemy can all too easily trip us up.
Today the church offers us the option of honoring St. John Leonardi. John was born in Lucca about 1550, during the Catholic Reformation. He was an assistant pharmacist when he decided to study for the priesthood. After ordination in 1572, he worked with the sick and imprisoned. His way of life soon attracted others and together they decided to form a new congregation of secular priests, the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God. He also helped establish the forerunner to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. He died in Rome on this day in 1609, having contracted the plague from those he tended.
The Eucharist is actually a vigil given to us by Jesus to nourish us, through Word and Sacrament, until he comes again. So, let us give our hearts to the Lord, holding nothing back, that we may reign with the glorious freedom of the children of God.
