Comfortable with Who We Are

Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

In this first week of September, we begin our traversal of the Gospel of Saint Luke. In the episode that we read today, Saint Luke presents us with the first miracle of this Gospel after Jesus has contended with the evil one in the desert. There is a proverb that says, those who feel they belong to who they are, are more likely to feel they belong wherever they are. If we are at home with ourselves, others will come visiting. If I am next door trying to find who I am, no one will come to visit because I am not there.

Jesus and we have learned something through his struggle with the devil in the desert. We have learned who Jesus is as he has countered every temptation that the devil sends his way by recalling that his Father in heaven has declared that he is the Beloved Son of God in whom God is well pleased. Jesus has accepted this message and begins his Galilean ministry, comfortable with who he is.

In this first miracle of the cure of a demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus is confronted once again by the evil one who has possessed this poor man. The demon cries out and acknowledges that it knows who Jesus is and asks whether Jesus has come to destroy them. The use of the third person plural pronoun when the demon identifies itself tells us that it is not the man himself who is speaking to Jesus. Jesus expels the demon and brings the man back to who he was meant to be. The demon can no longer convince the man the he himself was the demon. Jesus refuses to let this happen.

Jesus was Who He was all the time and in every circumstance of celebration or challenge. He shared what He was, because He had received Himself from His Father. Our redeemed goodness is the grace which Jesus shares with us in the Eucharist and the other sacraments. In each encounter with Jesus, we are called to be what God wants us to be, the Beloved children of God. Receive it well, believe it gently and go next door to share it with others.