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Transcript

9/1/26 Demonic Addictions · Omnia Christus

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel we have today has one of Hollywood's favorite Catholic tropes,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: and that is demonic possession.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hollywood loves the special effects and the attention that that garners
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: because I think we're all sort of morbidly fascinated by and a little bit afraid
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: of these sort of bizarre manifestations that happen around demonic possession.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what is possession?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is the devil's influence in our world?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we can be helped to understand by an example that most of us have,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: unfortunately, all too close to hand.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the example of addiction.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Almost all of us, I would say, probably have examples of addiction among our family and friends.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the addict, the addict doesn't want to be addicted.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: In many cases,
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  SPEAKER_00: the addict is almost entirely out of control and doesn't have any control
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: over his addiction.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the addiction did start with some conscious choices.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: People aren't addicted, except in very rare cases, by accident.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: There was some sort of a conscious will change.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: That allowed that addiction to come in and now the addiction has come in and taken hold.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is very much the way that demonic possession works as well.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The devil can't just randomly possess people.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the devil has no power or authority on this earth except what people give to him.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're not sort of walking in the Wasatch Mountains and suddenly you find a haunted rock.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever there's demonic activity,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: it's someplace where people lived,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: where human beings were because we can invite the devil in because we have the power
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: and the authority and we're all too willing to give that up to gain something.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when we see these examples here in the gospel or in Hollywood or wherever
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: of demonic possession,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: We need to turn to examine our own lives because we all have a little bit
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: of this influence of possession,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: a little bit of this influence of addiction in our lives.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are all ways in which our lives are out of control.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's ways in which we have handed over our own lives to other forces, to the forces of evil.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have invited that in.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is very interesting that demonic possession,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: the exorcism of a possessed person begins in exactly the same way
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: that addiction treatment begins, which is naming the evil.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The exorcist asks the devil his name,
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: and in the process of recovering from addiction,
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: the first step was in sort of the AA model, is to name the addiction.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have to name the addiction.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you gain control over it, is to face it, to name it.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we actually have a sacrament to do this, which is the sacrament of confession.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We all have that available to us.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this great psychological benefit,
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  SPEAKER_00: regardless of the spiritual side,
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: there's this great psychological benefit to name our sins,
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  SPEAKER_00: to name that thing which is afflicting me,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: to name that thing which is taking away my freedom and to get it out there,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: the humility of that It gives us immense control over that.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas we're running from it, pretending it doesn't exist, it has control over us.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So all of us,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we hear these sorts of stories,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: hopefully it's a reminder to us to take advantage of that sacrament,
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: that beautiful sacrament that we have,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: that sacrament of confession,
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: which gives us this ability to name our sins and feelings,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: to get them out there, to let them go.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the sacrament does even more than that.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a psychological exercise.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's also an act of the mercy of God.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So in that sacrament, God gives us a new beginning.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: He really gives us grace to begin to take hold,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: to control, to cast out of our life those things which are possessing us.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: In this gospel, we see that Christ has authority.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Over evil spirits and the people are amazed.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know where that comes from.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Each of us is called to have that same authority because each of us is baptized into Christ.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that Christ is my buddy, my friend?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know,
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: perhaps yes,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: in some sense, but the reality of baptism isn't that Christ came to be my friend.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Christ came to make me into himself.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I am Christ in this world by virtue of my baptism.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have become a child of the Father.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have received this authority to cast out evil spirits.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, to cast out those evil spirits in my own life.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then also to work to cast out and to heal others through that.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: The only path to that Is that path of healing that comes through the sacraments,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: through the Eucharist, through the sacraments of confession.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let us ask the Lord to grant us this grace,
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  SPEAKER_00: this power,
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  SPEAKER_00: this authority over the demons in our own lives so that being healed,
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: we might be Christ in the world and might exercise our authority to begin to channel
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: that healing power of Christ into the lives of those around us.