“Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unhealthy spirit… Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Come out of him!’ The unhealthy spirit… came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unhealthy spirits and they obey him.”
The man possessed by an unhealthy spirit is a man hollowed out of his essence as a person of integrity. He is hollowed out of his authority, his power. The man possessed by an unhealthy spirit finds company with the men of wealth and position. They too are hollowed of integrity, authority, power. The men of wealth and position meet in D.C. and London and Moscow and Beijing and Tokyo and Davos. Their recent January Davos meeting was titled, ‘Rebuilding Trust.’ In order to do so, they called for “leaders to come together” for “enhanced collaboration and cooperation.” They acknowledged their “soft landing from interest rate rises (aka the price we pay for them to do business) and high inflation (aka price gouging).” They also addressed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and climate change saying both “require investment and financing.” Their words are bereft of integrity, they offer the same Old teaching that lacks authority, they maintain control which thwarts the people’s power. It is the madness of dictators and wanna be dictators, like Argentine President Javier Milei, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jared Kushner founder of Affinity Partners, Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, and hundreds of others, including six officials from the Biden Administration. Some of the international attendees took the opportunity to communicate their support for the unhealthy spirit that is Donald Trump reclaiming the mantle of President of the U.S. For example, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the U.S.’s largest bank, asks people to “take a step back and be honest.” “Trump was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China.” Unhealthy spirits like Davos and Dimon and Trump require honesty that Trump diminished NATO to further Putin’s invasion plans; honesty that immigration termed illegal increased under Trump as did white supremacist violence against Hispanics; honesty that the Trump economy lost jobs while there was an increase in the trade deficit and in people lacking health care and in the federal debt; honesty that Trump’s tax cut benefitted the wealthy and their big corporations; honesty that China became more problematic while Trump gained financially from it.” Dimon does not want any current Christs to ‘rebuke his group’s unhealthy spirit,’ nor to ‘teach with authority.’ Instead, Dimon wants us to listen to those who, like him, have also been hollowed of integrity, authority, and power, “listen to MAGA folks a little bit.” “I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt” us. I think healthy talk ‘commanding an unhealthy spirit, ‘Come out of him,’ is going to help us.
“We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw… Those who have crossed… to death’s other Kingdom remember us, if at all, not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men… Let me wear such deliberate disguises – Rat’s coat, crow skin… This is the dead land… here in this valley of dying stars, In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together… Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow… This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.” (The Hollow Men – T.S. Eliot)
Prayer: Spirit of Communion, we vow integrity, authority, power.
Question: How can I help drive out the unhealthy spirit that is MAGA?
January 28, 2024 Gospel Mark 1:21-28 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time