Special Guest Post
Guest Author: Father James Sullivan
Dearly beloved in the Lord, as we journey through this holy season of Lent, a time appointed by the Church for self-examination, repentance, and renewal, we are confronted today by the solemn words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel appointed for this Third Sunday. From the eleventh chapter of Saint Luke, we hear: “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
These words, my friends, are no mere flight of fanciful prose, but a stark warning from the lips of our Saviour Himself, spoken in the midst of a controversy with the Pharisees, who accused Him of casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub, a demon of the highest order. Our Lord, in His divine wisdom, turns their accusation upon its head, declaring that His works are the very finger of God, ushering in the kingdom of heaven. Yet He does not stop there; He presses the point home with this vivid image of the unclean spirit’s return, reminding us that the battle against evil is not won by expulsion alone, but by vigilant occupation of the soul with that which is good and holy.
Consider first the opening declaration: “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” Here, Christ draws a line in the sand of human allegiance. There is no neutral ground in this world. There is no neutral, non-moral, non-religious soul, though they may claim it for themselves. Neutrality is a myth. A tactical lie of the enemy. There is no neutrality in the spiritual warfare that rages about us and within us. To stand aloof from Christ is never mere indifference; it is always opposition; and that will become clear in the passing of time, to those with eyes to see it.
To fail in gathering with the saints on the Sabbath is to be uncounted among them; to fail to gather souls for His kingdom is to scatter them abroad, aiding the enemy… whether we will it, or no.
In this Lententide, as we fast and pray, let us examine our hearts: Are we with Him, or against Him? Do our lives gather for the harvest of righteousness, or do they scatter the seeds of discord and sin?
But… our Lord extends the lesson even further with the parable of the unclean spirit. Behold the man from whom the demon has departed. For a time, the house of his soul is cleansed—swept of its foul inhabitant; garnished even with the outward clothes of reform. Yet, the evil spirit, wandering restless through arid wastes, finds no repose, and so resolves to return. And lo, upon his arrival, he discovers the house empty, tidied up, void of any new tenant. No divine presence fills the chambers; no holy habits guard the doors. Thus emboldened, he summons seven spirits more wicked than himself, and they take possession, rendering the man’s latter state far worse than his first.
What a fearful picture this paints of the human soul! It echoes the wisdom of Holy Scripture elsewhere, as in the Proverbs, where we read of the fool who “returneth to his folly, as a dog returneth to his own vomit” (Proverbs 26:11). Likewise, the unclean spirit returns to its former abode, and the soul, having cast out vice but not embraced virtue, becomes a breeding ground for even greater evils. The dog, in its base instinct, revisits that which is vile and corrupting; so too does sin, once expelled but not replaced, draws back with redoubled force.
Friends, this is no moral fable, but a mirror held up to our own condition. How often do we, in a fit of conscience or under the spur of Lent’s discipline, resolve to rid ourselves of some besetting sin—a habit of anger, of complaining, a vice of indulgence, a neglect of our duty? We sweep the house clean: we confess, we amend our ways for a season, we garnish our lives with resolutions fair to behold. Yet if we stop there, leaving the soul a vacant chamber, what follows? The void invites invasion. Without the infilling of prayer, without the nourishment of spiritual reading, without the sacraments of the Church and the fellowship of the saints, the heart becomes a dry place indeed, parched and defenseless.
Brethren, sin loves a vacuum. When we cast out a vice but leave the soul idle and unfilled—no prayer, no Scripture, no works of mercy—the devil finds fertile ground. As the proverb warns, idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and an empty heart becomes his playground. The unclean spirit returns not to a guarded fortress, but to an inviting void, bringing companions worse than itself.
When we expel evil but add nothing good, we create a hollow space where temptation multiplies. The man who abandons drunkenness but does not fill his hours with spiritual exercise, becomes a dry and angry wretch. The idle man, who repents of his sloth, must turn to labor for his cure to be complete. The woman who casts off gossip but neglects joyful meditation on the Word discovers bitterness taking root sevenfold. Yea, the last state is worse than the first! For the soul, once awakened to reform but then relapsed, hardens itself against grace, like ground trodden twice underfoot.
What, then, is the remedy? It is not enough to cast out; we must invite in. We must not be content to be couch-potato Christians, who pride themselves on the mere absence of bad behavior. Our Lord bids us not merely to flee from evil, but to pursue righteousness, faith, charity, and peace (2 Timothy 2:22). Fill the house of your soul with Christ Himself, who is the true Master and Guardian. Let Prayer be the lock upon the door, the Holy Scriptures the light within the chambers, and the Holy Communion be the bread that sustains. In this season of Lent, as we mortify the flesh, let us also quicken the spirit: Attend diligently to Morning and Evening Prayer, meditate upon the Passion of our Lord, engage in works of mercy and charity.
For remember, friends, that Christ has not left us comfortless. He who cast out legions of devils by His word promises to dwell in us by His Spirit. “If a man love me,” He saith, “he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Let us, then, abide with Him, gathering in His name, that no unclean spirit may find room to return.
May God grant us grace so to do, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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