Polluted Tongues

Gospel Reflection for September 4, 2024

Courtesy of Ascension Press

“And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.” Luke 4:41

Today’s Gospel records the healing of St. Peter’s Mother-in-Law as well as various healings and exorcisms in Capernaum. While there are many lessons to be gained, I was drawn to the phenomenon quoted above that as the demons are being cast out, they confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that is, the Divine in nature. At that, He silences them. This is a very odd action by Our Lord. Wouldn’t it seem contrary to His mission to keep anyone from revealing who He is? But God’s ways are not our ways and there are two main lessons that I want to pull from here.

The first is with reference to the power that Our Lord heals these people. Both Peter’s Mother-in-law as well as the sick and possessed of the town are healed by Christ in a specific way:

“He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her… He laid hands on each of them and cured them.” Luke 4:39-40

Ou Lord commands these things to happen. He does not intercede the way that the Old Testament prophets would in asking God to heal these people. He, who is the creator of all and who sustains all in being, heals. This is something that He does through the instrument of His humanity.¹ St. Cyril of Alexandria speaks very beautifully on this in his commentary on this passage:

“Jesus laid his hands upon the sick one by one and freed them from their malady. He demonstrated that the holy flesh, which he had made his own and endowed with godlike power, possessed the active presence of the might of the Word. He intended us to learn that, although the only begotten Word of God became like us, yet he is nonetheless God. He wants us to know that he is easily able, even by his own flesh, to accomplish all things. His body was the instrument by which he performed miracles…”²

In His goodness and mercy, Our Lord came to man as man and encountered our brokenness and sin as man. This allowed Him to speak and work with us on a human level. In the history of religion, no other belief system makes this claim. Christ showed us that when He touched us with human hands it was truly the hand of God over us.

The second lesson is one that I find to be important in our spiritual lives. Our Lord silences the demons from speaking a true statement, that He is the Christ. Our Lord is teaching us caution. While the demons are certainly speaking a singular truth, it is littered with poison and untruth. Our Lord wants to remind us that we are not to put our trust in demons, even if they appear to be speaking a hint of truth. St. Cyril, likewise, comments to this end:

“He would not permit the unclean demons to confess him. It was not right for them to usurp the glory of the apostolic office or to talk of the mystery of Christ with polluted tongues. Yes, nothing they say is true. Let no one trust them. Light cannot be recognized with the help of darkness, as the disciple of Christ teaches us, where he says, “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”³

They speak with polluted tongues. There are so many people these days who would seek to cite a demon during an exorcism as a credible source for information that does nothing but divide. Our Lord teaches caution. Put not your trust in those who speak truth mixed with poison. The small amount of poison added ruins the whole. St. Cyril speaks well when he tells us that Light cannot be recognized with the help of darkness. Darkness cannot cast out light, only light can do that.

Our Lord reminds us not to go to darkness in order to understand the light. We must go to He who is Light from Light. Only there will be find the authority to confess that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

1. The use of His body as an instrument may strike some as an odd thing to say. But we have to remember that Christ’s humanity subsists in the Divine Person and as such, is an instrument for the Divine Person to act through. This does not make Him less human, instead, it assures that the work done through His humanity has the divine character. See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae IIIa q. 19, a. 1.

2. St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John.

3. Ibid.