"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" (Mark 1:24)
Why does the demon in Sunday’s Gospel use the plural "us" rather than the singular "me"? Jesus’s following words of exorcism clearly show there is only one demon involved.
When a devil interferes with us, he wants to identify himself with us, so we believe his lies as if they were our own thoughts: this is why the demon is using the plural "us".
In reality, it is God who identifies himself with us, not the devil: he became a human being to share our thoughts, emotions, pleasures and pains, as we hear Moses say in the first reading: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you must listen" (Deuteronomy 18:15-16).
We can trust what Jesus says because He loves us with compassionate understanding; the devil’s words are designed only to harm us.
Sometimes we feel trapped by lies about God, ourselves and others: we don’t want to believe them but we are too weak to resist - it seems as if these thoughts are "ours". St Mark uses an intriguing phrase for this man’s possession: the devil is not "in" him but the man is "in" the devil, as if he is engulfed and surrounded (1:23).
Let’s come before Jesus and listen to Him: he will first silence the devil, whose power relies on his lies, and then cast him out: "Be quiet! Come out of him!" (1:25).
When we look at ourselves, we can struggle to distinguish who we are from the devil’s interference in our lives - which is just what he wants - but Jesus never makes that mistake: He always sees us for what we really are, children of God who are each worth all his blood, shed on the cross.
Moses’s instruction to listen to Jesus was repeated by God the Father himself at Jesus’ Transfiguration, but also by His Mother, whose last recorded words were "Do whatever he tells you" (John 2:5). Let’s listen to Jesus in our prayer, His Scriptures and His Church.<br><br><em>(Main photo credit:<a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/artplus?mediatype=photography"> artplus</a>; iStock by Getty Images.)</em>
