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| My kids helped me unvest in the sacristy (Sat. 5pm). |
Homily #56c (Notre Dame Catholic School & Family Mass @ 12pm)
Homily #56b (Sunday, 8:30am Mass)
Homily #56a (Sat., March 5, 5pm Mass)
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| Someone asked me to take a pix. I have the rose stole today for Laetare (Rejoice) Sunday. |
HOMILY #56:
How To Forgive Deep Hurts/Grudges Using Jesus' Name & Deliverance Ministry
St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Vacaville, CA
4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)
March 5-6, 2016
[*Pastor asked me before Mass to include a brief explanation of the rose vestments.]
I recently attended a Deliverance Ministry Conference. Deliverance Ministry is very much related to
today’s Gospel for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday). During Lent, we are called to have a spirit
of repentance, a sense of sin, and the true
freedom of the children of God.
Three main characters from Jesus’ Parable are the
Merciful Father, the Younger Prodigal Son, and the Older Son. I am going to focus on the Older Son to have
us experience Deliverance Ministry today.
There are two main parts in this homily. First, we are like the Older Son with grudges
and hurts. The second part is that we
can be delivered from these hurts. [I
will take 30 seconds to show you Deliverance Ministry to forgive this Lent.]
I.
So let’s look at the Older Son in today’s Gospel. Notice the Older Son’s reaction to his Father:
The Older Son became angry; he bitterly refused to enter his Father’s house; He
said to his father…, “[A]ll these years I served you and not once did I disobey
your orders…”
Here, the Older Son needed to be unbound or freed from
the shackles of a spirit of unforgiveness.
He needed the freedom that is befitting of a son or daughter – a
child – of God. He was in the bondage of
a spirit of bitterness which was eating his heart. He needed deliverance.
II.
This leads to the second point: Deliverance Ministry
involves a simple prayer of authority using Jesus’ name to drive away spirits
troubling God’s children. Here, one need
not be an ordained priest to use Jesus’ name to free people in bondage. To use
the words of today’s Responsorial Psalm, “Taste and see the goodness of the
Lord./ I sought the Lord, and he answered me / and delivered me from all my fears.
Deliverance Ministry is different from (a) the
Sacrament of Reconciliation and (b) the solemn Rite of Exorcism. Both Confession and Exorcism require a priest,
but Deliverance Ministry does not. These
are three completely different but related ministries.
Whereas in the Sacrament of Reconciliation where we take
accountability and confess our sins to a priest of how we ourselves have hurt
God and others, Deliverance Ministry by contrast is where we need to be freed
from the spirit of hurt caused to us by others.
The authority to close off any open doors of hurt comes from the name of
Jesus and our baptism and Confirmation.
[IF TIME ALLOWS: When I first heard of Deliverance
Ministry, I thought it was a Protestant televangelist thing, but in the history
of the Catholic Church, the Church has always delivered her children from the
influence of fallen spirits (whether through catechumens and RCIA, renouncing the
devil and sin during the ritual for baptism, or professing faith in the Gospel
at Mass).] The secular non-religious world
calls these “negative energy” or “bad karma”, but the Christian Creed believes
in all things visible or invisible in the spiritual world of good and bad angels.
So here are some steps in Deliverance Ministry. I will summarize briefly what normally takes
20 if done well. First, repent and believe in Jesus. Next, forgive
and renounce using Jesus’ name. For
example, you say, “In the name of Jesus, I forgive ______ (say that person’s
name) for _____ whatever the hurt was done – here, you want to be
specific. If it’s hard to say the
person’s name, it can be whispered under the breath or be general like “In the
name of Jesus, I forgive the masked man for breaking into my car”. In the case of the Older Son, he would say,
“In the name of Jesus, I forgive my younger prodigal brother for living a life
of dissipation, for ruining our property and finances, etc.” Again, you want to name specific people and
specific hurts.
After forgiving, then you renounce by saying, “In the
name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of …..” and then you list what it is. [IF TIME ALLOWS: In the case of the Older Son
from today’s Gospel, for example, he would say, “In the name of Jesus, I
renounce the spirit of unforgiveness. Or
in the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of anger or hatred or bitterness. Et cetera.”]
You can say this at home or in front of a person praying over you.
Afterwards, you or the person that is praying over you
takes authority in the name of Jesus
over the spirits that have been renounced and commands them to leave with words
such as, “In the name of Jesus, I break the power of every spirit that ______
has renounced, and I command it to go right now to the foot of the Cross.” We are not to converse with evil spirits but
only use Jesus’ name. Only an exorcist
should converse with evil spirits.
Deliverance Ministry is not an exorcism.
[IF TIME ALLOWS: Finally, you say words to thank God with any words such as,
“Thank you, God, for helping me to forgive,” and receive his blessing. Notice,
in all cases, the Name of Jesus is always used.]
III.
So, to summarize: (1) We are like the Older Son with
grudges. (2) And we can be delivered
from these grudges and hurts.
So, are you ready to forgive someone right now? Even if there’s more, let’s focus on just one
or two. I invite you to forgive
now. You can remain seated. Repeat after me:
I believe in You, Jesus.
In the name of Jesus, I forgive __________ for
__________.
In the name of Jesus, I forgive __________ for
__________.
In the name of Jesus, I forgive myself for
____________.
Repeat after me:
In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of
unforgiveness.
In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of
resentment and bitterness.
In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of anger.
In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of
revenge.
In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of _____
(list whatever else you want).
“In
the name of Jesus, I take authority over and break the power of every spirit
that I have renounced, and I command them to go right now to the foot of the
Cross.”
Now, repeat after me: “Thank you, Jesus, for this
freedom. Thank you for this gift to forgive
this Lent.” And there you go! We learned another way to forgive hurts.
I close with the words of the Word of God from St.
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians in the Second Reading, “Whoever is in
Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold new things
have come!”
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