EVICT THE TENANTS! 2 Evict the Tenants! So many images to shae with you fo this one! The fist is fom a talk I head by Babsie Bleasdell. It s the image of a landlod o landlady evicting tenants. It s a petty hash image, and it bought to mind anothe hash image the scene whee Jesus used a whip to dive the money-changes out of the temple because they wee defiling His Fathe s house ( Jn 2:12-22). Babsie, of couse, was talking about a diffeent temple, the living temple of the body. Do you not know, asks St. Paul, that you ae the Temple of God, and that the Spiit of God dwells within you? (1 Co 3:16-17). 9 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 9
21 WAYS TO WORSHIP What defiles this temple of God that dwells within? The unwanted tenants that occupy ou heats. Out of the heat, the Lod tells us, come evil intentions, mude, adultey, fonication, theft, false witness, slande. These ae what defile a peson (Mt 15:18). Babsie explained that we all, at times, entetain some petty undesiable guests in ou heats. We may not have consciously invited them, may not even know they e thee; but they have taken up esidence and ae unwilling to leave on thei own. They ae defiling the temple, and we need to get id of them to clean house, so to speak. How do we evict them? We choose the whip that is bestsuited fo the type of tenants we e dealing with. Let me give you anothe image that may help. Who s on the Thone? Chist told us that the Kingdom of God is within us (Lk 17:21). As in evey kingdom, thee s a king, seated on a thone. You heat is the kingdom. Who s on the thone? If it s not Jesus Chist, you have some evicting to do. As the lyics of an old hymn expess it, Cast all false idols fom the thone. The Lod is God and He alone. What s an idol? Anything, o anyone, that you have allowed to become moe impotant than God. It can even be something good you job, you appeaance, you social life, spoting 10 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 10
EVICT THE TENANTS! events, even eligious activities anything that you ve become so attached o addicted to that you ae neglecting you esponsibilities to othe people and failing to keep God at the cente of you life. How do you cast these idols fom the thone? It may be that all that is needed is an extension of taking off you shoes. Just close you eyes and imagine enteing you heat. See the thone, and ty to discen who o what is sitting thee. If nothing specific comes to mind, ask the Lod to help: Lod, if thee s anyone o anything that I ve allowed to become so impotant that it s pushed You off the thone, get id of it. Come into the temple of my heat with You whip and dive out anything that is not of You. The Wold, the Flesh, and the Devil At othe times, we may need a stonge cleansing of the temple. You may have head that the temptations that beset us often come fom the wold, the flesh, o the devil o sometimes all thee. n The Wold Looking into ou heats, we may find that the thone has been occupied by secula attitudes, ideas, values, concens, o ambitions fosteed by the wold aound us. n The Flesh On a deepe level, we may discove that Chist has been pushed off the thone by needs, 11 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 11
21 WAYS TO WORSHIP attachments, self-centeed desies, o esentments that stem fom ou own human weakness what the Chuch calls concupiscence, ou inclination to sin. n The Devil Deepe still, thee may be evil spiits that have found an entyway. The catoon potayals of a little ed devil whispeing in one ea and a little bight angel whispeing in the othe eflect a eal battle aging aound o within us much of the time. And so, St. Paul exhots us, Put on the amo of God so that you may be able to stand fim against the tactics of the devil. Fo ou stuggle is not with flesh and blood but with the pincipalities, with the powes, with the wold ules of this pesent dakness, with the evil spiits in the heavens (Eph 6:11-12). Am I suggesting you might be possessed? No! That you need an exocist? No! Evil spiits ty to confuse us, influence us, exhaust us, and daw us away fom God in all sots of ways. In most situations, it s not a matte of a spiit taking contol of you; it s moe compaable to being suounded by a swam of nasty mosquitoes that iitate and distact you so that you just can t function as well. We ll come back to how to get id of the mosquitoes, but fist let s look at some examples of how the wold, the flesh, and the devil often wok togethe to occupy ou heats in a way that can gadually daw us away fom God and even cipple us spiitually. 12 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 12
EVICT THE TENANTS! n A 20 yea-old college student, though books, the news media, movies, teaches, and discussions with fiends, is exposed to secula ideas and anti-eligious attitudes (The Wold). His paye life begins to suffe, he stops going to Mass, and he begins questioning the authoity of his paents and the teachings of the Chuch (The Flesh). Finding an entyway, spiits of confusion, self-centeedness, and ebellion ente his heat (The Devil). He s fustated and unhappy, but doesn t know why. n A young gil, gowing up in a family envionment of violence and ejection, expeiences constant citicism, neglect, and physical abuse (The Wold). Feeling somehow to blame, she withdaws into heself, vowing that she will neve be like them and neve allow heself to be hut again (The Flesh). Finding an entyway, spiits of insecuity, abandonment, and unfogiveness ente he heat (The Devil). She s feels isolated and unable to find meaningful elationships with othes. n A middle-aged, maied man is exposed to sex-based TV, compute, and magazine ads and explicit sex scenes in movies and novels (The Wold). He finds himself giving in to impue thoughts and sexual fantasies and begins looking at ponogaphy on his compute (The Flesh). Finding an entyway, spiits of lust, addiction, and despai come into his heat (The Devil). He wants to be fee of this, but feels completely helpless. 13 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 13
21 WAYS TO WORSHIP A few yeas ago, I was given a eally helpful book that makes it easy to ecognize the kinds of entyways that spiits use to influence us. It s called Unbound: A Pactical Guide to Deliveance, and it s witten by Neal Lozano, a geat Catholic teache and wite. Lozano shows how sneaky these uninvited guests can be, waiting fo a doo to open even a little so they can stick a foot in and get a toehold on ou lives. And he povides vey pactical ways that we can get id of these mosquitoes by identifying the doos we have opened and leaning how to close them. It s well woth eading. Anothe wite and spiitual diecto, F. Geoge Kosicki, CSB, also teaches about the devious tactics of evil spiits, and he has a favoite whip o battle technique fo getting id of them. He calls it Squashing the Bug. He explains that Satan and his cohots know ou weak points, so they use the same old knapsack of ticks ove and ove again to get us to yield to ange o fea o jealousy o selfpity o impuity, etc., etc. We need to fist identify the tick being used and then tun to May. She is the one, F. Kosicki says, who cushes the head of the sepent with the heel of he offsping. As the heel, the humblest, lowest pat of the Body of Chist, we, the childen of May, expeience the bite of Satan. But we can tun to ou Mothe to show us how to cush the head of Satan (See Gen 3:15 and Rev 12:17). 14 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 14
EVICT THE TENANTS! How do we do it? he asks. With a laugh. With the joy of the victoy that has been given to the Woman. We can tun to May with a laugh and say: May, look at the old boy. He s using the same old tick of ange. Step on his head, May. Squash the bug! Cush that sepent with you heel. The victoy is yous, May, and is given to us, you offsping. Squash the bug! Anothe whip that F. Kosicki ecommends is the daily pactice of taking authoity ove evil spiits in the name of Jesus a kind of spiitual maintenance. I ve adapted his authoity paye and included it hee as a sample fo you. You don t have to use this exact woding, but can modify it in whateve way woks fo you. The only necessay ingedient is to take authoity in the name of Jesus by the powe of His Pecious Blood. Authoity Paye By F. Geoge Kosicki and Vinny Flynn In the name of the Fathe and of the Son and of the Holy Spiit. Amen. Thank You, Jesus fo You Euchaistic pesence hee and thoughout the wold. Thank You fo You passion, death, and esuection, and You victoy ove sin, death, and Satan. Thank You fo giving the victoy to May and, though he, to us. In the name of Jesus Chist and by the powe of His Pecious Blood, I take authoity ove you, Satan, and all you othe evil spiits in o aound me o. [List names of family membes, 15 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 15
21 WAYS TO WORSHIP fiends, o othes who come to mind.] I set the Blood of Jesus upon you, especially you spiits of. [List whateve spiits come to mind], and I ode you to be gone, bound to Jesus, neve moe to intefee with ou lives. Lod, Jesus, we belong to You. Fill us with You Holy Spiit. Fill us with You mecy. Send You angels to guad and guide, comfot and instuct us, so that we may love and seve You evey moment of ou lives. [Say the Ou Fathe and conclude with, Fo the kingdom and the powe and the gloy ae Yous, now and always and foeve. Amen. ] 16 21WaysToWoship2017AI.indd 16