Connected to the Vine

Homily, Easter Sunday 5B

Back towards the beginning of this year, I was out to bless someone’s house. Nothing too dramatic, just a few prayers and sprinkling holy water throughout, but it always brings to mind other house blessings that I’ve done. When I was at the Cathedral in Sioux Falls—being the most visible church in the area and the most widely recognized by Catholics and non-Catholics alike—and even during my time at Holy Spirit Parish in Sioux Falls, we’d get calls every once in a while from people reporting strange occurrences in their homes, spiritual attacks or what they thought could be demonic activity or house hauntings. Now I’ve never done any major exorcism, which requires specific delegation from the Bishop, but there are many minor exorcisms and blessings that any priest is authorized to use. So I’d incorporate some of those into a house blessing when that seemed beneficial. I have heard that in recent years there’s been a general rise throughout the country and throughout the world in the number of requests for exorcisms. I actually don’t find it all that surprising, when you consider that—more and more—people are not being baptized, or that even those Catholics and Christians who are baptized don’t really practice their faith in real ways, or they even live in ways that are contrary to God’s plan and His commandments. What I do find a bit surprising is the amount of ignorance among Catholics and Christians about the very basics of the spiritual life. What does it mean to be in the state of sanctifying grace, connected as a living branch to the Vine of Christ? To be free from unabsolved mortal sin, which cuts us off from the Vine and the life of grace? What does it mean to make an integral or complete Confession of our sins in order to be reestablished in sanctifying grace through absolution? St. John tells us in our second reading, “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.” The way that we stay attached as living branches to the Vine of Christ is to persevere in sanctifying grace—which is God’s own life dwelling within us—to keep the commandments and avoid mortal sin, which cuts us off from God’s grace. When people call about a house blessing or an exorcism where they suspect strange or demonic activity, there’s usually a standard list of basic questions we ask. Have they been baptized? Did they ever receive this foundation and gift of God’s grace that is the most important protection for us against the works of Satan? If they are baptized, do they practice their faith, do they pray and maintain that relationship with God? Do they keep holy the Lord’s day and gather every Sunday to worship God? We also ask about any regular sources of grave sin. Is there abuse of drugs or alcohol? Gambling or other addictions? Are you living with someone who is not your spouse as if they were? Now these might seem like rather personal questions to ask in a first conversation with someone, but to assess the spiritual situation, these are the basics. More and more common now are sins against chastity and addictions due to materials on the Internet. We would also ask as best we can about other psychological factors that can be mistaken for something spiritual. Now if we find out that the person is Catholic and hasn’t been practicing their faith, we would try and guide them towards repentance and making an integral Confession, in which they would confess all grave sins of which they are aware and which haven’t been absolved in previous Confessions, and the number of times or some estimate of how often they’ve committed those sins, so that they can get back into the state of grace and the spiritual life, raised up from the spiritual death of grave sin, dead branches reattached to the living Vine. One good Confession—which is one of the seven sacraments—is much more powerful than any number of exorcisms, which are sacramentals. These very ordinary ways of staying connected to Christ, of going to Confession, making sure that we’re in the state of grace to receive Holy Communion, giving God His due thanks and praise by praying every day and throughout the day and by gathering for Mass on every Sunday and holy day of obligation, following God’s commandments and avoiding mortal sin instead of insisting on our own ways, these are the very ordinary means that God has given us to remain in His grace and love, to enjoy the guidance and protection of His holy angels, to bear good fruit as living branches on the life-giving Vine of Christ. If we really choose to live the basics well, to live as ordinary, faithful Catholics in the midst of an unbelieving world, we will have nothing to fear from the evil one. Our homes will be dwelling places of God. More importantly, our families, even our own bodies will be temples of the Holy Spirit, bearing good fruit in abundance, to the praise and glory of God’s holy Name.