4th Sunday - Demons & Hell

 

Once when I was an associate at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Wichita, I visited a classroom at the Catholic grade school. And when I entered the 4th grade room, I asked the children if they had any questions. One boy raised his hand. I said, “What’s your question?” He said, “Is there any sin in heaven?” I said, “No, there is no sin in heaven.” He said, “Are you sure, there is no sin in heaven?” I said, “Yes, I am sure, there is no sin in heaven.” He said, “But, didn’t the bad angels sin in heaven?” I thought, well, the kid is right, there was sin in heaven. Realizing the very smart question, I said, “Well, yes, there was one time when some angels sinned in heaven. But, now, there will never be any sin in heaven.”

In the Gospel today, Jesus expelled an unclean spirit from a man. What is an unclean spirit? It’s a fallen angel. In the book of Revelation Chapter 12, it describes about the war that was in heaven. Michael the archangel and his good angels fought against Satan and His bad angels, but the bad angels were defeated and lost their place in heaven. Satan’s name was originally Lucifer, which means “light bearer”. Lucifer was the most intelligent, most beautiful and strongest of all the angels. Some saints believe, that God showed all the angels in heaven, the future day when Jesus would take on human nature and become a man, and they would have to bow down and worship Jesus in His human and divine natures. And all the angels had one choice to either do what God wanted, or to choose to disobey God. Two-thirds of the angels chose to serve God, while one-third of them chose to not serve God. It’s believed Lucifer cried out, “I will not serve!” and at that moment, St. Michael knelt before God and cried out, “Who is like God?” in rebuke of the devil. Michael became the leader of the heavenly armies. His willingness to serve God, and to recognize that there is none other like God, was an act of obedience and humility to shame the pride of the devil. And so God allowed Michael to cast the devil and the rebel angels out of heaven.

The fallen angels became unclean spirits also called demons. So a demon is really a fallen angel. Each of us has a guardian angel assigned to protect us. And we can call upon St. Michael, who will come to our aid when we need protection against evil spirits who try to tempt us.

About 8 years ago, Bishop Kemme asked all priests to pray the St. Michael prayer at the end of all Masses, which is why we do that here at Holy Trinity.

Today, some people think there is no hell or that hell is empty. But today’s Gospel is reminder that there are evil spirits who possess people, but Jesus who is God has infinite power over them and can expel them.

Fr. Chad Ripperger, a famous exorcist, who many people watch on YouTube, recently said that many people no longer believe there is a hell. He also said, “Fear of the Lord, is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, people really lack today.”

What is fear of the Lord? Does it mean, that we should be afraid of God, or afraid that God will punish us for our sins? While we should have a healthy fear of being punished for our sins, especially for going to hell. That’s not what “Fear of the Lord” means.

To Fear the Lord means, that we should have a fear of offending God because we don’t want to hurt Him, whom we love. Whenever we sin, we hurt God. All we have to do is look at a Crucifix, and we can see how our sins hurt Jesus. Some think, well, that was 2000 years ago. But, the truth is our sins today caused Jesus to suffer like that 2000 years ago. Whenever we sin, we hurt Jesus. We should have a fear of hurting Jesus, because we love Him and don’t want to cause Him pain and suffering.

In fact, Pope Pius XI, said, “Every sin must be said to renew in a certain way the Passion of Our Lord, crucifying again in themselves, the Son of God and making Him a mockery.” In other words, the fear of hurting Jesus, should cause us to avoid sins. I think today, most people think when we sin, it doesn’t hurt anyone. But it does. First, it hurts Jesus. Second, it hurts our soul. Third, it can hurt another person whom we offend. Fourth, every sin wounds the mystical body of Christ. So there is really no such thing as a private sin.

Today, some people don’t think there is a hell, or they believe hell is empty because God is too merciful to send anyone there for all eternity.

But, there really is a hell and people really do go there. The Church teaches there is no forgiveness after death. If we die unrepentant, in the state of mortal sin, we will go to hell forever. Hell is place of unending torment.

Sister Lucia, described one the visions the children of Fatima had when the Virgin Mary appeared to them in 1917. She said,“Mary opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays of light appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls of the damned. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished from the souls of the damned by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.” The Virgin Mary showed the children of hell, and at that time Francisco was 9 years old, Jacinta was 7 years old and Lucia was 10 years old. Rather than causing them to be afraid of God, they were afraid that souls would go to hell, so they began to do penances, to prevent people from going there. They tied a rope around their waste as a penance, and gave their food away to poor children.

Hell is eternal, its forever. It is a dogma of the Catholic Church, that demons and the damned who go to hell, and will be there for all eternity.

In the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9, Jesus describes what hell is like. He said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.” (Mark 9:43) Catechism from the Council of Trent, describes Hell as a “most loathsome and dark prison in which the souls of the damned are tormented with the unclean spirits in eternal and inextinguishable fire.”

All it takes for a person to go to hell - is to die with one unrepentant mortal sin on their soul. That is why if we commit a mortal sin, we should never delay in going to Confession. Rather, we should immediately come to Jesus in the Confessional, and He will wash away our sins and give us peace.

God does not send souls to hell. Rather, a soul who died in the state of unrepentant mortal sin, will turn their back of God, and will send themselves to hell, because they know they are not worthy of heaven and can’t be with God.

All of us should have the fear of hell and the fear of the Lord. We should be afraid of going to hell, but more importantly, we should be afraid of hurting Jesus, whom we love.

Today, what we need to do is to live our life with Jesus and if we live our life with Him, we have nothing to fear, because we trust in His mercy. He is a God who loves us infinitely.

I think one of the biggest problems we do today is compartmentalize our faith. What I mean by that is that we go to Mass on Sunday, we make our Holy Hour, but when we are at home or at work or at school, we don’t think of God. We live our life as though God is not part of it. We put our faith in a box.

But, we need to live our faith every day at all times. So how do we do that? It’s really rather simple. All we need to do is realize at all moments Jesus is with us. Jesus is always at our side. Jesus is inside us through baptism. Jesus wants to be part of everything we do.

Here is an example. When I was a seminarian, one day, I decided to ask Jesus what He would like me to eat for supper. I was just walking down the hallway at the house, and said, “Jesus, what do you want me to eat for supper?”

I never heard a voice. I didn’t have this shazzam moment.

Rather, I thought well, I can go to McDonald’s and get a hamburger, or I can go to the grocery store and buy some beef and make my own burger. I just decided, I would go to the grocery store and get some hamburger. As I walked to the meat department, I couldn’t believe it. There in front of the hamburger section was, a friend of mine, that I went to college with. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years.

It was at that moment, I believed Jesus inspired me to go to the grocery store and get hamburger, not just to make my own hamburger, but to see a friend. I later thanked Jesus for inspiring me to go to the grocery store, though originally I had no idea it was Him who inspired me to go to the store.

When having difficulty at work, ask Jesus for help. When you get into the car, say, “Lord Jesus where do you want me to go?” When you are working on your homework and are having trouble with it, ask Jesus for help. When you need to make a quick decision say to Jesus, “What should I do?”

Ask Jesus to walk down the street with you. To go to the post office. Be sure to ask Him what He wants you to eat for supper. Tell Him you love Him. Don’t forget to thank Him. And if you just sinned, tell Jesus you’re sorry.

If Jesus is our best friend, we don’t leave Him at Church. Rather, we take Him everywhere we go and that will make our day a much happier one. While He may not take away all our sufferings, He will certainly help you to endure them. May the Virgin Mary, intercede for us to help us to realize Jesus is always with us and loves us, and we may turn to Him all times throughout the day and do everything we can to not hurt Him, because we love Him.