There was a man with an unclean spirit

15 JANUARY (Mk 1,21b-28)

On the unclean spirit possession we already find indications in the Old Testament. With Saul it is spoken of an evil spirit that troubled him. It was the spirit of jealousy and murder.

The spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and he was tormented by an evil spirit sent by the Lord. So the servants of Saul said to him: “Please! An evil spirit from God is tormenting you. If your lordship will order it, we, your servants here in attendance on you, will look for a man skilled in playing the harp. When the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play and you will feel better.” Saul then told his servants, “Find me a skillful harpist and bring him to me.” A servant spoke up to say: “I have observed that one of the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem is a skillful harpist. He is also a stalwart soldier, besides being an able speaker, and handsome. Moreover, the Lord is with him.” Accordingly, Saul dispatched messengers to ask Jesse to send him his son David, who was with the flock. Then Jesse took five loaves of bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David. Thus David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul became very fond of him, made him his armor-bearer, and sent Jesse the message, “Allow David to remain in my service, for he meets with my approval.” Whenever the spirit from God seized Saul, David would take the harp and play, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, for the evil spirit would leave him.

In Tobias it was a spirit of death. It killed anyone who came close to Sara in order to have her hand in marriage. In this book they talk of a bad demon named Asmodeus.

On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it so happened that Raguel’s daughter Sarah also had to listen to abuse, from one of her father’s maids. For she had been married to seven husbands, but the wicked demon Asmodeus killed them off before they could have intercourse with her, as it is prescribed for wives. So the maid said to her: “You are the one who strangles your husbands! Look at you! You have already been married seven times, but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands. Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Then why not join them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!” That day she was deeply grieved in spirit. She went in tears to an upstairs room in her father’s house with the intention of hanging herself. But she reconsidered, saying to herself: “No! People would level this insult against my father: ‘You had only one beloved daughter, but she hanged herself because of ill fortune!’ And thus would I cause my father in his old age to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow. It is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults.” At that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out this prayer: “Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God! Forever blessed and honored is your holy name; may all your works forever bless you. And now, O Lord, to you I turn my face and raise my eyes. Bid me to depart from the earth, never again to hear such insults. “You know, O Master, that I am innocent of any impure act with a man, And that I have never defiled my own name or my father’s name in the land of my exile. “I am my father’s only daughter, and he has no other child to make his heir, Nor does he have a close kinsman or other relative whom I might bide my time to marry. I have already lost seven husbands; why then should I live any longer? But if it please you, Lord, not to slay me, look favorably upon me and have pity on me; never again let me hear these insults!” At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God. So Raphael was sent to heal them both: to remove the cataracts from Tobit’s eyes, so that he might again see God’s sunlight; and to marry Raguel’s daughter Sarah to Tobit’s son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her. For Tobiah had the right to claim her before any other who might wish to marry her.In the very moment that Tobit returned from the courtyard to his house, Raguel’s daughter Sarah came downstairs from her room. (Tb 3,7-17).

Jesus came to destroy the kingdom of Satan, to reduce it to impotence. Satan sees that the time of his fall came and he cries out to Jesus. You are our ruin.

Then they came to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Also seeing a Christian, Satan must be able to say: “You have come to destroy us.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, free us from the power of Satan.