The Gospel for today’s Mass is one of my favorites.
There’s much to contemplate here, various aspects of the event that will strike us, depending on where we are in life.
We could be anywhere and anyone in this scenario: Bound, possessed, despairing, existing on earth, but dwelling among the dead and their tombs, among the things dead and gone and lifeless. Living among and being defined by, if we think about it, the things that actually have no power over us, but still, here we are. Or we could be in the town watching, curious, but then forgetting about the man living in chains among the dead, content to go on as if he didn’t exist down there in his pain.
We could be there when Jesus arrives, and again we could be anywhere and anyone. Despairing, struggling with the forces within that will fight to stay where they are, controlling us.
And then, like that, free.
We could be watching the man Jesus, wondering, and then, despite what should be good news, seized ourselves now. Seized with fear, that’s us. So afraid that we respond to the triumph of goodness and new life with panic.
Leave us.
I am always writing about today, this moment, the present. For the truth is that yes, Jesus has arrived in your district. At this moment. He’s here. Healing, calling, inviting, challenging, sending.
The townspeople are watching, fearful. What are they afraid of? Why do they want Jesus to just depart?
What does this mean practically?
It will mean different things to different people, depending on where you are. Your temptations, the voices discouraging and fearful, will vary.
It can come from nothing more than life’s responsibilities, distracting us from the goodness and grace of the present moment.
It might come from the walls we’ve put up ourselves – I’m undeserving, I’m too far gone, no way I can be changed, no way things can be different. These are the tombs, and this is where I live, chained.
It might come from others in our real life and the lives we lead online. Voices that can do a number on us in various ways, but fundamentally in this moment, I think, will look at the possibility of a person living in peace and joy here and now and be horrified at the prospect: How can you? In all of this? Don’t you understand what’s going on?
And proceed to pull us into one more conversation fraught with tension, despair and anger, pushing aside the possibility of healing, joy and good news – as we end up just like the townspeople ages ago, begging him, in our own ways, to leave our district, to leave us as we were, where we were, no matter what possibilities we have, indeed, seen with our own eyes.
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”
He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
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.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“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.
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