What does it mean to feel cursed? In a way, to be cursed can mean that there is something seemingly greater than us that wields power over us in such a way that we are deprived of our freedom. Something has a hold on us and we cannot seem to break free. Looked at this way, being cursed can mean the same thing as oppression – the loss of control on account of someone or something that wields dominance and control over our lives. This results in a type of victimization that imprisons and demonizes. ‘Demonize’ may sound like a rather strange word to use in this case, but there is a very real felt sense of intractability by someone who feels cursed and this perception functions like a ‘demon.’
Addictions can make us feel ‘demonized’ or cursed. The ‘monkey on our back’ will not loosen its hold and we feel trapped. Sometimes the ‘curse’ or ‘demonization’ is the result of someone imposing constraints upon us that effectively seem to shut us down. Sometimes this comes from a person, a group of people or even structures built into society. When the ‘demon’ is actually structured into the world in which we live, it tends to hide itself in such a way that it cannot be seen for what it is. It can disguise itself as something that appears ‘good’ or for the purported ‘well-being’ of at least some of us. This insidious demon resides in a ‘home’ that we will defend and protect. We cannot see or recognize the demon and thus the ‘curse’ can even seem as an advantage or a privilege.
How can we recognize, much less confront, this curse or demon that masquerades as ‘goodness’ and righteousness? This seems to be the curious question that is raised in the Luke’s gospel (LK 11: 15-26)
‘When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:
“By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.”
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.’
Jesus confronts the somewhat surprising response of the ‘crowd’ upon his driving out a ‘demon.’ There seems to almost be a sense of jealousy on the crowd’s part which characterizes itself as resentment when they accuse Jesus of drawing off of the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebul. Jesus is quick to point out the confused ‘logic’ of what they are suggesting. In short, why would a demon be driving out another demon? And furthermore, this project of self-hatred on the part of the demon can only result in one thing – total collapse. A kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste.
It’s as if Jesus is saying that release and freedom can only come from a unified source. Division can never result in authentic freedom or release. Jesus goes on to claim ‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’ Again, it appears that only unity can grant freedom, i.e., ‘then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’
Then, Luke provides us with this curious passage:
“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone,
it roams through arid regions searching for rest
but, finding none, it says,
‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’
But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits
more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there,
and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”
Although, it may seem that this passage seems to point out that there is power in numbers and that conditions can worsen as a result of this, I am most struck by the line in the middle of the passage:
“I shall return to my home from which I came’
Again, it’s the same ‘house’ or ‘kingdom’ – here, referred to as ‘home’ – to which all of us belong. We mistakenly think of this ‘home’ with a false sense of security that we have when we attempt to divide or separate ourselves from each other that will ironically result in collapse. It would seem that when we operate from a standpoint of judgment, then everything must be treated in an ‘either/or’ fashion. Someone or something is either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ black or white, true or false, and on and on. What Jesus may be trying to tell us is that the demon’s curse is precisely our inability to see that the demon is not taking ‘sides.’ There are no sides in the kingdom that Jesus is talking about. And any attempt on our part to protect this ‘home’ will only multiply anxiety and insecurity – the demons who find no rest.
We can – and in fact do so on a regular basis – go out and campaign for our agendas so that others will get on the bandwagon (here name your own). And there is the strong sense that my position is THE position and if others agree then it must be true, since now it carries the clout that accompanies OUR position. History, however, has shown us – and indeed in this very day! – though that an accumulation of like-minded opinions can have devastating and death-dealing results. This type of accumulated and calculated power can disguise itself as a type of freedom; however, this type of ‘freedom’s’ well-being and livelihood many times relies solely upon protective agency and concerted exclusion.
Jesus does not seem to be promoting that particular type of freedom. Indeed, it appears that he is actually pointing out that this type of ‘freedom’ in its inability to deliver authentic life-giving release becomes a curse/demon that strangely enough accomplishes exactly the reverse of what it claims. This is freedom divided against itself, which is no freedom at all. True freedom can only come from Unity. Is this not why Jesus in John’s gospel spends so much time speaking about how he and the Father are One? Authentic freedom truly grants freedom specifically through the unity at its core. And that unity is relationship!
To return to the ‘home from which I came’ is to return to the central relationship of Love that cannot be defeated no matter how much we fail to recognize it, deny it, and hide it behind ego-projects that feign ‘well-being.’ This center cannot fail, because it is the divine center within each of us and in all of us together as created in the divine image. The divine image is irreversible and indestructible. And paradoxically, authentic freedom flows precisely from this unalterable Divine center that holds us all together in relationship. Even though we demonize Divine Love in our everyday lives, as the crowd did in the gospel, our Divine center – the home from which we come – cannot die!
The demons in our lives will never ‘rest’ until we can recognize our true home, the center of freedom within us that connects us irrevocably to God and each other. If or when we do return to this home, then the Kingdom of God shall have come upon us!
PEACE
THOMAS