Word to the Wise
Monday, February 3, 2014 - Monday in the 4th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 and Mark 5:1-20]"Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you." Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.
The man is the Gerasene demoniac. The territory is on the southeast end of the Sea of Galilee - not a Jewish area. The Romans did occupy it, however. The particular location is a graveyard! There are pigs being herded in the area! In short, the place is about as unclean as a place could be from a Jewish point of view! The Romans, the pigs and corpses were all unclean, and the poor obsessed man is also unclean because of the demon. But Jesus is more than equal to all these negative elements. He casts out the demon [who recognizes the greater power] and restores the demoniac to "normal life." However, there is one more element, which is found in the quote above.
The newly exorcised man wants to get in the boat! Jesus wants him to go and proclaim the message to the villagers (who are frightened by what Jesus does to the demon). In short, Jesus has the power to overcome any "demon" that may threaten us, and he expects that we will proclaim what he has done for us. The demoniac, long before St. Paul's time, became an apostle to the gentiles in his region! So can we! AMEN