Over the last couple of weeks now, if you have been to daily Mass, there have been a couple of occasions in our Gospels where we have seen these encounters happen with Jesus and the unclean spirits. It always surprises me how in these interactions, in these Gospel stories, it is often the unclean spirits who recognize who Jesus is, who recognize His authority and His power. They know exactly who He is and what He is capable of. And it can be rather surprising to see, in contrast, that the people who are listening to Jesus preach or who are witnessing the miracles and good works that He is performing, they still can’t bring themselves to recognize that Jesus is the Savior, that He is the Messiah.

Why is that? Why is it that the demons, the unclean spirits recognize Jesus, they know His identity, they know His purpose…so why can’t the people? Why can’t the Jewish people who are hearing His message, why can’t the Scribes and the Pharisees, why can’t His own disciples come to that personal recognition of Jesus being the Savior?

The answer is found in what type of vision the demons and the unclean spirits possess. They can see into a deeper reality, into the spiritual realm. Because let’s not forget who the demons and the unclean spirits used to be. As we know from the tradition of the Church and the message of other parts of Scripture, at some point there was a battle that broke out in Heaven. Lucifer, the angel of light, rebelled against God and a third of the various ranks of angels joined him in that rebellion. When they lost, they were cast out of heaven. They were cast down to the earth. Hence, we have Satan and his minions, the unclean spirits and demons.

But because they are purely spiritual beings, they see on a much deeper level than we can at times. That’s why they can recognize Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus is the one who created them as angels and principalities and powers. He created them to be good, which we know they chose not to accept in the end. But even still, they are still subject to His authority…He still has power over them. And that’s why they are able to recognize who Jesus is.

In our Gospel, after the demon questions the Lord’s intentions, it states: “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus responds by ordering the demon to come out of the man and the spirit obeys. That astonishes those who are witnessing this happen and it leads them to their own questioning of the identity of Jesus. They likely found themselves asking the same question that we’re asking: how did this unclean spirit recognize Jesus and we can’t fully grasp His identity?

So, what can we learn from this? This encounter between Jesus and the demon brings us to the understanding that simply knowing Jesus is the Son of God is not enough; it doesn’t constitute belief in Him as the Savior. It doesn’t always lead to the acceptance of following His will, of submitting ourselves to His authority and Lordship, of devoting our lives to the service of the Gospel. It is a challenge for us.

All of us here without a doubt know that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Savior. But the question we are being invited to consider is: do we assent to his Lordship in our lives and allow a relationship with Him to change us? Do we seek to see Him with a spiritual vision, recognizing that He is capable of freeing us from the grip of sin and death, accepting that He is the One who created us, that He is the One who leads us to freedom?

As Christians, each of us have uniquely encountered the love of the Lord in a variety of ways – whether we recognize it or not. The challenge for us is to enter more deeply into a personal relationship with God so that He can reveal to us how He has impacted our lives, how He has showered with his love. For many of us, that task doesn’t come easy for different reason. It takes a considerable amount of effort. But it is possible.

Today, the Lord is inviting us to an encounter with Him. He’s inviting us to trust Him more deeply and to let down the walls that we often put around our hearts that prevent us from seeing Him so that He can reveal to us exactly who He is. He wants to show us that He is our Savior, that He is our Messiah. He wants to show us how He is working within our lives, working to save us constantly. He wants to show us how He loves us, how He wants what is best for us. If we want to grow in our faith, we have to let Him teach us. That means we can’t call the shots. The Lord is challenging us today, in a loving way, to recognize just how little we know and how much we need to learn.

Jesus knows that we don’t know everything. He knows that we so often have trouble accepting His power in our lives, that we fail to recognize His authority over us, and that we struggle to be His disciples. And yet, He doesn’t abandon us in our journey of discipleship. He doesn’t give up on us. He continues to come to us each and every day, giving us new chances to recognize Him, to follow Him. When we allow Him to lead us spiritually and He reveals to us the good works He has done and continues to do in our lives, only then can our lives can be totally uprooted and our hearts encounter the immensity of His love. It is then that we come to recognize His identity as the Holy One of God and our lives are changed as a result.

So today, let’s ask the Lord to give us a new spiritual vision, that we are able to recognize Him as the Savior, that we are capable of seeing how He is working in our lives and in the lives of others. Because if we want to go out and live more fully as His disciples, if we want to bring the love of God to others, we first have to experience it for ourselves. Let’s beg the Lord for that experience today as we receive Him in the Eucharist…and may it truly change our lives.

Image: Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum, fresco. 11th century. (Source: Rudolf Lehr – Landes-Chronik Oberösterreich, Wien: Verlag Christian Brandstätter 2004 S. 79). Wikimedia Commons. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.