Posted on 10/07/2016 7:39:29 AM PDT by Salvation
The Gospel for Friday of this week (27th Week of the Year) features the puzzling parable about the cast-out demon who returns with seven others. What is most puzzling, is that finding the house (soul) “swept and clean” brings further trouble. One would think that a house that is swept and clean would be a good thing!
For reference, here is the parable:
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he roams through waterless places in search of rest; and finding none, he says, “I will return to my house which I left.” And when he has come to it, he finds the place swept and clean. Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse that the first (Lk 11:24-25).
How can we understand this parable? As is often the case, recourse to both the subtleties of the Greek text and the context can help us.
1. The Greek Text
A puzzling aspect of examining the Greek text is that what some Greek texts describe with three adjectives, almost every English translation renders with only two. Why is this? Because some of the Greek manuscripts lack the third word, which translates as “empty.”
While I can read the Greek text of the New Testament with relative ease, I am not an expert in ancient Greek or in the relative value of differing Greek manuscripts. The translation as either “swept and clean” or “swept and ordered” is almost universal among English renderings of this text. (See HERE for an example.)
I happen to believe that the inclusion of the word “empty” is essential, because otherwise something very important is left out. Let’s look at the description of the “house” (soul) to which the demon returns:
καὶ ἐλθὸν εὑρίσκει σχολάζοντα, σεσαρωμένον καὶ κεκοσμημένον.
Kai elthon heuriskei scholazonta, sesarōmenon kai kekosmēmenon.
And having come, it finds (it) empty, swept, and put in order (ornate).
The fact that the house (soul) is empty is the chief problem. Empty things need filling. Sadly, if good things do not fill empty spaces, then evil things do. This seems to be at the heart of the Lord’s warning.
A second issue is the translation of the word “kekosmēmenon.” Does “ordered,” or “put in order” really capture what the word is trying to convey? Most of us hear the word “order” and think of either systematic or moral order.
However, the Greek lexicon defines the root of kekosmēmenon, kosméō, as “to beautify, having the right arrangement (sequence) by ordering; to adorn, make compellingly attractive, very appealing (inviting, awesomely gorgeous).” Kosméō is also the root of the English word “cosmetics,” which are things that adorn or “order” the face.
Thus, the “order” described in this passage is more an order related to beauty. Hence the translation “ornate” may better capture what is meant by this word than either “clean” or “orderly.” So as we read this parable, we should consider that the description of the house as “swept and clean” may lack the subtlety of the Greek words. And while we should be wary of etymological fallacy, the original root meaning (kosméō = cosmetic = ornate, rather than merely “ordered”) ought not be wholly forgotten!
With these in mind, let’s consider the richer possibility that the Lord describes the “house” (an image for the soul) in three ways:
This is the key description that some ancient manuscripts omit. And yet it is the main problem. An empty house is a vulnerable house. An empty house, devoid of human presence, can no longer repel threats or repair damage that make it vulnerable. But more significantly from the standpoint of grace, an empty house, devoid of the presence of God, is a vacuum ready to be filled with demons and with every form of human sin, pride, and confusion.
Empty buildings are vulnerable, open to attack by termites, extreme weather, mold, and rodents. Just as an uncultivated field goes to weed, so an unattended house slides into decline and decay. So, too, goes the empty human soul, a soul devoid of the presence of God, of gratitude to Him, and of openness to His satisfying presence.
Yes, here is the spiritual lesson: let the Lord and the good things of the Kingdom of God fill every void, every empty space! Emptiness is too easily filled with evil things.
Consider a man who gives up alcohol for Lent. He does well by ending a lawful pleasure and making greater room for God. But what if God, or something of God, does not fill the space? Usually something of the devil, or something of the flesh, will fill it. Perhaps he will think, “I am approved because I, by my own power, have given this up.” But sadly, pride fills the empty space rather than God. The man’s new state is worse than before he gave up the lawful pleasure!
It is good if a person has, by God’s grace, been able to sweep sin from his life. But praise be to the Lord, not to the man or woman! Otherwise this is an open door for pride. Perhaps the sinner who succeeds in a Lenten observance will say, “Look what I have done! I am approved and am better than others who are less committed!” In this way grace is snatched by Satan. The house (soul), swept and in good order, must also be filled with humble gratitude to God. Thus the Lord warns of a house that is “swept,” but empty of humility and gratitude.
While some translate this as “ordered,” it would seem that, given the context, ornate would be a better rendering. Hence we are warned to beware of vanity and also of esteeming beauty more than charity. The warning is for those who, though they appreciate beauty, become smug and disdainful of all others who do not share their aesthetic preferences.
Thus a connoisseur of fine wine may scoff at people who enjoy wine sold in a box (“cow”) or who like White Zinfandel. And God forbid that they prefer beer! In this way, an appreciation for the finer things (like wine) becomes pride and leads to the last state of the man being worse than the first.
Beauty and the appreciation of it has its place, but if it cancels charity, the last state of the man is worse than the first.
One may appreciate the beauty of the Latin Mass, but if love for the aesthetic causes one to scorn a priest who forgets to bow at the Gloria Patri or who wears gothic vestments instead of the preferred Roman fiddlebacks, then the love of beauty (a good thing) destroys charity (a better thing).
2. The Context
It is edifying to consider the contextual setting in which the Lord places this parable: an answer to those who pridefully rebuked His casting out of a demon (attributing it to Beelzebub). Just prior to the parable of the empty house and the seven demons is this event and subsequent rebuke:
Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb; and when He had cast out the devil, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marveled. But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, He casts out devils.” And others, to test Him, demanded from Him a sign from heaven. But He, seeing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and house will fall upon house. If, then, Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I cast out devils by Beelzebub” (Lk 11:14-16).
These religiously observant people (a good thing) had allowed their lives, all swept and clean but empty, to be filled with doubt, scorn, and pride.
That they followed the Law was a beautiful thing. Their lives were swept clean and ornate, but empty. And the emptiness was filled with pride and cynicism.
All of us who are religiously observant should pay particular attention to this. During Lent, many undertake certain practices and purifications. Beware that these mortifications do not create a space that, though clean, is empty and vulnerable to being filled with pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth … the seven ugly cousins of the sin we were trying to drive out in the first place! Failure to fill the gap with God opens us up to all seven deadly sins.
Watch out! The devil can use even our piety to ensnare us in his seven-fold bondage. Do you engage in some active purifications? If so, you do well. But be sure that the space opened, all swept and ordered, is filled with God, with humility, and with gratitude. Otherwise it will too easily be filled with seven ugly demons and sins: pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.
Is this a parable decoded or muddled? You decide. The comment section is open, swept and clean!
I read a different take...I think on EWTN website, that what it is saying is the person became complacent and with their guard down and a clean house they’re easy to compromise. And this happens repeatedly even until full possession.
Is that another approach you've used and if so, how well does that work for ya ?
Following Jesus Christ as an eternal disciple--not just as a hanger-on--is the only thing that fills and abounds, driving the Devil away.
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will
of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be
filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."
(Ephesians 5:15-21 AV)
That doesn’t sound like a Martin Luther action. I’ve read much of his work and don’t remember that. If you can provide a reference I would be appreciative.
I do remember a tale about Martin Luther throwing an ink well at a demon which was made up to justify a spot of spilled ink in his office.
Luther’s philosophies are very similar to my own experiences and to do something like that would be lowering yourself to their level, in which case you lose.
I have had them throw up, spit, hiss, growl, moan, and say just about any nasty thing you could imagine... but they have never tried throwing anything at me. They know that the Holy Spirit around them just gets tighter and tighter and they scream in fear if they push too far. I have had them threaten to kill the person they are in, but they are liars and never carry through.. Thank God.
Read Luther's buddy Phil, not Luther and his works that were greatly cleaned up by Phil and others. The story of the ink well being thrown was, in original form, not an inkwell but a feces battle with Satan.
Luther was constantly constipated, feces was something he thought (and wrote) about a lot. It's much easier to find what Luther actually wrote without editing in the German language than in English, but it's out there if you find older books many of which are free somewhere on the web.
If you're honestly interested, look around, if not, the above comes up right away in any search engine.
**Assist the victim in finding and healing the wound in their soul that created the opening for the demon. **
This would take a lot of listening.
“**Assist the victim in finding and healing the wound in their soul that created the opening for the demon. **
This would take a lot of listening.”
When the demon is trapped in the Holy Spirit and begging for mercy, they will answer your questions as if they don’t they know the Light that will destroy them gets brighter and closer to their being.
So I just ask them, “What took place in this person’s life that opened the door for you to enter?”
You can’t imagine how often is was a child that was molested and the demon explains who did it in detail and that they transferred from the perp into the new victim at the time of the molestation.
It’s very sad, but real as real can be.
Fr. Ripperger has a few lectures on demons and exorcism and says he finds out during an exorcism what it was that allowed the demon to enter in the first place. Makes sense since the goal is to get rid of the demon and heal the possessed person.
Unless they are ordered to not return, they’d respond just as a kid would:. “You told me to leave. You didn’t tell me not to come back.”
Also, if nothing comes in to fill the void, like the presence of the Holy Spirit, then the *house* will be swept clean and be empty.
Thanks for the link.
I noticed that is was written by:
William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance (Boston, 1992), pp.139-140
I just ordered a copy of the book. However I was searching for his source for the quote.
Here is a discussion by Luther scholars on Manchester:
“William Manchester and Luther
I’ll keep a running list of what I learn about this work under this title. The first thing I notice is that Manchester is a historian of the twentieth century, writing mostly about WWII. Medieval Mind is his only work outside that subject.
A review of the work in Word and World 14 (1994) no. 2:225-228 quotes the author’s note from the work as saying: “Complete at last, this book is a source of pride, which is pleasant, though in this instance somewhat odd. It is, after all, a slight work, with no scholarly pretensions. All the sources are secondary, and few are new; I have not mastered recent scholarship on the early sixteenth century.” p. xiii.
The reviewer says the work “displays a breathtaking lack of scholarship.” and “obviously, the problems with this book are many. Events are sometimes related inaccurately. The conclusions drawn from particular events are often questionable. The presentation of facts is selective and biased. The method used is dubious. Someone interested in this period of history could find better books. It is hardly conceivable that one could find a worse book.”
If you want to get into Luther’s struggles, you need to find another work. read Obermann’s Luther : man between God and the Devil and Brecht’s three volume Martin Luther before adding material on this topic.
This book is not the first we hear about a preoccupation with what is called an “elimination theology”: Osborne popularized this thinking with his Luther (play). I appreciate the work the above poster has brought to bear on this. drboisclair 14:56, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
Allow me to say that the privy does have spiritual benefits as the elimination creates a purification process. Fasting also is a purification process.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, lower extremities is generally where the demons enter. I have had them hide in the bowel area.
Having done much of this work and having read Luther’s words on this matter, I do not feel the quote of Luther throwing fecal matter is accurate. However, I keep an open mind as one is not born into spiritual perfection, it is a growth process. I’m a screw up and make big mistakes... But God’s Grace appears to be greater than my mistakes.. (rough learning experiences)
I thank you again for posting the original comment as I have a lot of admiration for Luther, but also an objective open mind.
Funny coincidence... a little over 5 years ago I got stung by a demon.. It hid in my lower body much the way the apostle Paul referred to his “personal demon.”
It was a constant battle for me.... One day the demon said to me... “I can’t stop what goes into you, but I can stop what comes out.”
Shortly thereafter I had a total blockage from colon cancer. I knew exactly where the cancer was at the first time I went to the DR. I even took his finger and put it on the tumor so he could feel it.
It was a tough battle for me as I felt rejected by God. Why am I not worthy of the healing that flows through me to other people? I knew the exact event in my life that was attached to/created the cancer. It happened when I was between 3 and 4 years old, but I couldn’t reach the event in my soul to heal it.
I had the surgery to remove the tumor, but refused chemo and radiation. I knew I was ok... That was over 5 years ago.
While the wound in my soul was created when I was a child victim, I needed to forgive the person who harmed me. That took much more time, but eventually healed the soul wound.
I was a loyal Lutheran for almost thirty-five years but after nether any Lutheran or any other non-Catholic could provide adequate answers to questions I'd been asking since I was twelve or so I decided to investigate Catholic and Orthodox teaching as opposed to the trash non-Catholics have to say about either or both.
I'm now Catholic, and significant part of the reason is due to the words of Luther himself as opposed to the polished up versions that are the norm. You can find nearly everything in English these days and if not, do you read German? That is, actually, the best thing to do, read Luther's own German writings, so someone who read German and the two of you have a grand old time. Otherwise, if you,re all fat and happy with no fear and trembling left in you, join the herd and pretend you know what Luther was writing and preached based on what his buddy Phil and others with their own agendas cleaned it up and spread.
This somehow is a duplicate post which seems to happen from time to time although I don’t know how. Could you delete one of them if it’s a problem ?
Regards
The tired old fiction that “sin causes suffering” needs to be put down. What did the family of the toddler do to deserve him being killed by an alligator at Disney World? What sin did the toddler commit to cause his suffering in being drowned by an alligator? Quit with this garbage.
The tired old fiction that “sin causes suffering” needs to be put down.
Yeah Sara, Job did nothing and got a good load of suffering, how do you explain that?
First, there is a higher level of understanding what we are not privy to.
Second, death is an end to suffering, it is not suffering. The short period of pain prior to death is nothing in comparison to the Love an bliss after you die.
Sin creates an obstacle to Love in our soul which creates suffering. It’s why Jesus healed people by saying “You are forgiven.”
Read John 9 :1 When the Pharisees asked Jesus who sinned, the blind man or his father...
If he was blind from birth, when did he sin? Yes, He was born with it.
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