A couple of years back, I lived with a brother priest who, for years, had struggled with alcohol addiction. He was in an out-of-rehab, and when he realized he no longer had control over the addiction, he joined the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) movement. Alcohol addiction or any other addiction for that matter is one of the diseases that does not recognize your title, academic background, vocation in life, economic status, or your gender.
Anyone can get it, and it can terribly affect one’s career, vocation in life, spiritual life, relationships, and even one’s physical health. At the time I met this brother priest, he had been sober or “dry” for so many years. He attributed his sobriety to being active in AA. Every day, he attended one or two AA meetings, did his daily reflections, and sponsored and accompanied many other candidates on the road to recovery.
An addiction is like a “demonic possession.” It can take over your life, leaving you with no control over your own life. If by the grace of God, you regain your freedom from the addiction or “the demon,” you have to find something different to fill the “empty house” or the empty heart that has been vacated by “the demon.” The Lord is speaking to us today about the fragility or the danger of the “swept and clean” yet empty house.
Nature does not allow a vacuum or a void. Soon, the void becomes unbearable or uncomfortable, and if one is not vigilant enough, the destructive allure of the past comes back - this time more ferocious than it was before. This is what the Lord means when he says that the expelled demon “…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.”
The point here is that it is not enough to expel a ‘demon’ out of our lives; the point is that it has to be actively replaced with something positive that comes from the grace of God. My brother priest, I told you about, filled his heart with a different passion when he regained control of his life. He became passionate about accompanying others on the road to recovery, and he built a new spirituality about “death and resurrection” in life.
Today, we are invited to examine our “house” or our hearts. Each one of us can ask ourselves: Is there a ‘demon’ that haunts me or has some control over me? It can be something we have brought in the sacrament of reconciliation for years, and are asking God to grant us freedom. What ‘unclean spirit’ or sin do we ask the Lord to cleanse us of or expel from our lives? If the Lord grants us a “clean house’ or clean heart, what can we think of placing in our hearts to fill the void that was created?
May we ask the Lord to fill any void we have with His word, his love, his presence, and may we actively commit ourselves to good works as part of our newfound freedom! Amen.