“He gave them power over all demons.”
Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the kick off of 40 Days for Life.
September 22, 2021
“…with cloak and mantle torn, I fell on my knees; stretching out my hands to the Lord, …I said, ‘My God, I am too ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you… for our wicked deeds are heaped up to heaven… great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds, we have been delivered up…to the will of the kings of foreign lands.” This heartfelt prayer of the Jewish priest Ezra could well be made our own, this evening, as we beg the Lord for forgiveness of the sin of abortion and other sins against the dignity of each human person. We are engaged in a spiritual battle against a terrible death-dealing serpent. Novelist Michael D. O’Brien calls abortion “the greatest evil of our times—the institutionalization of murder on a global scale.” The evil is so great we could easily lose heart, or we could close our eyes and harden our consciences to the horror that is happening. But 40 Days for Life gets it! All who join this campaign for the defense of innocent human life employ the weapons that ensure victory – prayer , sacrifice, the rosary, the Eucharist and prayers of deliverance and exorcism.
The Father of lies, Satan, is at work when the genocide of unborn children is labelled “women’s healthcare” and billions of tax-payers’ dollars are subsidizing the carnage. Unborn children are judged the ideal victims for this demonic killing since they are totally incapable of defending themselves. Thanks be to God, some in America and beyond are not closing their eyes and hardening their hearts to his horrific evil, nor are we losing hope.
Very fittingly, our Gospel account (Luke 9:1-6) tells how Jesus equipped the Church for spiritual battle: “Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases…” The first thing Jesus did for the Apostles as He sent them on mission was to alert them to the enemy and give them the power to defeat it. You cannot defeat an adversary unless you know who he is, how he works and with what means he can be defeated. When fighting the devil, we need to know that the battle rages not only around us but also within us as he seeks to confuse our minds and convince us that all hope of victory is lost. In this spiritual battle, however, the victory has already been won by Jesus on the Cross.
Long before Jesus called disciples to follow Him, He entered our broken world as an unborn child. He came into a world that we think is “normal” but in fact is abnormally malformed by the Father of Lies. Many call abortion “health care” when, in fact, it is closer to Auschwitz!
Even though Jesus is, from all eternity, one in life and love with Father and Holy Spirit, He emptied Himself of His glory and took on the brokenness of our human nature, so that He could, by His death and Resurrection, defeat the Father of lies, overcome the darkness of sin, and lead us into the Kingdom of God. Whomever received Jesus receives healing and hears Him says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I shall give you rest.”
The 40 Days for Life campaign will bear good fruit to the degree that we live each day as beloved sons and daughters of God and help others to discover and believe in this, their deepest identity. Every mother facing a crisis pregnancy needs to encounter Jesus, needs freedom from the “father of lies”, needs healing and hope that only God can give.
To be successful, one more thing is needed: we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, relying entirely on Him and not ourselves. As Jesus was sending out His first disciples on mission in His Name, He told them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.”-Luke 9:4 He wants us to be like the lilies of the field or birds of the air—who never worry about what they are to eat or what they are to wear. He asks us, “Are you not worth more than many sparrows?” Yet, we may find ourselves, asking, “Why does Jesus give us tasks that make us objects of scorn and recipients of hate? Why does He place us where we are not wanted? Because that is the place that witnesses to Him are needed today.
In AD 2016, the Government of France banned a TV commercial because it featured people with Down Syndrome who were happy. The happiness of Down Syndrome people was a problem, said the government’s highest court, because it is “likely to disturb the consciences of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.” So why does Jesus send us to proclaim His Kingdom where our presence disturbs the conscience of others? Did King Herod want Jesus to be born in Bethlehem? Were the Scribes and Pharisees pleased when Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners? “Do you think that I have come to bring peace?” Jesus said, “I tell you, the opposite is true.” The peace that Jesus brings, the peace that He places in our hearts, is not “peace and quiet,” not one that this world can give. It is the gift of the Risen Christ, the Prince of Peace, a robust Shalom built on truth and love, peace stronger than lies.
“The Kingdom of God is at hand” The King has already entered “the enemy territory” that we call human history. The King sends forth His friends in every age—to go where they are not wanted but needed, to bear witness to the Risen Christ who has definitively won the victory over sin and death.
