Word to the Wise
Monday, February 4, 2008 - Monday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
[2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 and Mark 5:1-20]As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
It is an ironic thing to me that our Church requires a miracle or two to convince it that a given person is holy enough to be declared a saint when we can read in the gospel today that faith is not always the response to Jesus' miracles! Why should we use miracles as a criterion? The reaction of the people to Jesus' battle with the demon called Legion is one of fear! And elsewhere we see that even Jesus' own family were not convinced by his works and words. It appears that Mark has placed this story in his gospel as a means of demonstrating that in the battle with demons and evil, Jesus' power surpasses that of even the toughest demons, like Legion, for example. If we witnessed something like that in person, would we say, "Hey, that's cool!" or would we say, "If he can do that to a demon, imagine what he could do to me if I got on his wrong side!" We could have both reactions! With the Gospel of Mark, we more or less have to read it backwards and understand everything from the viewpoint of the cross and resurrection of Jesus. This is why so many are unable to understand what he is doing, because the purpose of all his actions is still ahead of him. At the same time, we can take courage that by faith in that cross and resurrection, we can confront and conquer almost any demon. Some of these, like Legion, are beyond mere human effort, but with God's help we can overcome them. They may be personal or societal, but we cannot put any of them beyond God's power if we ourselves are willing to overcome our own fears. AMEN
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