While Jesus was teaching in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit challenged him, heckled him, disrupted his teaching moment. Most of us can likewise recall instances where a meeting or presentation was disrupted by someone who disagreed with what was being said or who had their own agenda to promote. Few, if any, of us can forget the horrific results of the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Oklahoma bombings, Columbine, or the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Evil exists in this world and no matter how much we wish it did not, it remains. Albert Einstein once said that “The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.” We are, as human beings, sinners, both by inclination and in fact. We are all born with the stain of original sin on our soul, a legacy inherited from our first parents. Fortunately, baptism cleanses our souls; unfortunately, the inclination to sin remains.

We tend to over-dramatize this incident in the Gospel, to imagine a scene like that in The Exorcist with spinning heads and shrieking utterances in strange tongues.  Our imaginations run wild and we conjure up demonic possession; or we suspect some form of physical disability like epilepsy or perhaps a mental problem like schizophrenia.

The reality is, I suspect, far more mundane and unfortunately, all too common. In a very real sense each of us has within us unclean spirits, spirits that for the most part are kept under control and hidden from others. Within us, we have a soul, an immortal spirit; it is what defines us as human beings, what makes us creatures made in the image and likeness of God. When we sin, and we all sin, we defile our souls and in doing so we become, like the man in the Gospel, a person with an unclean spirit.

What caused the man to confront Jesus, why did he cry out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Somewhere deep inside he must have realized that Jesus could save him, could rid him of his unclean spirits, could make him whole and clean again. Jesus knew his heart, saw within his soul, and cleaned away the darkness that he kept hidden away. Jesus saw the unclean spirit of the man and commanded “Quiet! Come out of him!”

We all have secrets, thoughts and experiences that we don’t wish to share with anyone, things that we fervently hope will never be revealed. We all have our indiscretions, faults, and failures and we file them away, put them in boxes in the forgotten recesses of our minds, believing that once forgotten they will never be found again.

The problem is that what we so desperately wish to keep hidden, safe from all around us cannot be kept from God; he already knows, he has always known; and he knows where you stored them.

And then there is another problem …we know. We cannot simply forget what we have done or failed to do. Over time, our secrets, our sins, our failings overshadow the good that is within. Like monsters hiding under the bed or the closet, that terrify in the darkness, we begin to believe that we are so failed and broken that nothing can ever save us. We stumble through life believing that we are unforgivable, unworthy, total failures. We become so ashamed of who we are and what we have done that we find ourselves, like Adam and Eve, hiding from God, hiding our nakedness.

When we keep unclean spirits around, no matter how well we attempt to hide them, it clutters our soul, dampens our spirit and builds walls that restrict our personal relationship with God.

Instead of holding onto our secrets, our unclean spirits, Jesus asks us to give our sins over to him, to let him clean our souls and make us whole again. But that requires us to recognize that He is in control and that we are vulnerable. And that is often very difficult to accept. For most of us, we like being in control, we feel uncomfortable when we are not behind the wheel, when we are dependent on another. The thought of handing control over to someone else can be frightening, to say the least.

To be vulnerable to Christ is like a new born infant being held in the loving arms of his or her mother. The child is entirely dependent on another, completely vulnerable, unable to exert any control, to make any decisions. And yet, the infant intuitively understands that he or she is safe and loved.

Like an infant, we should intuitively know that we are safe in God’s hands. God loves us and wants us to love him in return. No matter how many times we fall He will always forgive us as long as we ask for His forgiveness.  With Jesus, unclean spirits don’t stand a chance and good always wins out over evil.