Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“Exorcism at Gerasenes”
by James Tissot, c. 1890’s

 
Readings for Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary: [3]
 
Reading 1: Hebrews 11:32-40
 
Brothers and sisters:
What more shall I say?
I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms,
did what was righteous, obtained the promises;
they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires,
escaped the devouring sword;
out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle,
and turned back foreign invaders.
Women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance,
in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point;
they went about in skins of sheep or goats,
needy, afflicted, tormented.
The world was not worthy of them.
They wandered about in deserts and on mountains,
in caves and in crevices in the earth.
 
Yet all these, though approved because of their faith,
did not receive what had been promised.
God had foreseen something better for us,
so that without us they should not be made perfect.
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Commentary on Heb 11:32-40
 
The Pauline author considers his theme of faith (Hebrews 11:1). He tells his audience he did not come to proclaim the prophets, whom he describes as righteous and brave while giving a short list of examples. He explains that, while they did what was good in the eyes of God, they did not receive the promise that is made to the followers of Christ. It is only through Christ that resurrection and salvation may be achieved.
 
"In God's mysterious plan those who belonged to the time of 'shadow' (Hebrews 10:1) and we who belong to the time of fulfillment would be 'made perfect' together by the one sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:14). What they had in anticipation we now have in reality.  Yet Christians too walk by faith, since we too still await the full consummation of the promise (Hebrews 10:36)" [4]
 
CCC: Heb 11:39 147; Heb 11:40 147
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Responsorial Psalm: Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24
 
R. (25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
 
How great is the goodness, O LORD,
which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
you show in the sight of the children of men.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
 
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
 
Blessed be the LORD whose wondrous mercy
he has shown me in a fortified city.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
 
Once I said in my anguish,
“I am cut off from your sight”;
Yet you heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried out to you.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
 
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
The LORD keeps those who are constant,
but more than requites those who act proudly.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
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Commentary on Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24
 
The complete psalm is an individual lament. This selection is a song of thankfulness and praise for God whose mercy is boundless and his forgiveness complete. We hear some of the pleading of the psalmist who has endured hardship and thought this was due to God forsaking him.  But the Lord had not forgotten him and returned to comfort him.
 
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Gospel: Mark 5:1-20
 
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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Commentary on Mk 5:1-20
 
This is St. Mark’s version of Jesus casting out the multitude of demons and sending them into the herd of swine. Swine [pigs] are considered unclean animals under Hebrew dietary laws (Leviticus 11:7-8.  This action not only reinforces Jesus’ universal mission but adds a dimension of symbolism. It is important to note that this is a pagan region, so what the Lord is doing in helping the man with unclean spirits is ministering to non-Hebrews, indicating the breadth of his mission. Also in this story, the demon addresses him as “Jesus, Son of the Most High God,” a title that identifies him clearly and without equivocation as the Messiah.
 
“Allegorically (St. Bede, In Marcum): the demoniac represents the Gentile nations saved by Christ. As pagans, they once lived apart from God amid the tombs of dead works, while their sins were performed in service of demons. Through Christ the pagans are at last cleansed and freed from Satan’s domination.” [5]
 
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Reflection:
 
At the heart of the story of Jesus casting out the legion of demons and causing them to flee into swine is the fact that evil is real, and there is a war against Satan going on in the world.  As much as our hedonistic society is more and more denying the existence of God and rejecting Jesus Christ, it disbelieves the existence of personified evil, Satan, and the consequences of following his invitations. 
 
When one denies the existence of something more powerful than themselves, it is like walking around in a pandemic without observing any safety precautions. (And Satan, to the person who has already rejected the vaccine against him which is faith, “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen,” is more powerful than their own will and, as we have seen, comes to us as something infinitely desirable.) When we refuse to believe in the existence of Satan, we are at his mercy and the results, as the possessed man demonstrated, are mentally and physically devastating.
 
Perhaps one of the most important statements we are given today may seem anticlimactic.  The man Jesus had cured asked, even pleaded, with Jesus to stay with him. In this action we see that the vacuum left when the demon’s possession ended had been filled by faith in Christ, protection against further attacks by Satan.  Rather than accepting his offer, the Lord sent him back to his own people with the words: “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
 
The message we can take from this incident, in addition to a reminder of the threat Satan constantly poses, is that, what God, in his mercy [pity], does for us, he does out of his great love for us.  We do not earn his mercy or his salvation; it is given to us because God has a special love for us. It is our inoculation against Satan. We can think of it as we think of what a good parent does for his or her child.  What right do children have to expect all of the good things parents give them?  What effort on the part of children causes the parent to lavish their love upon them?  It is not some merit in the child that causes or entitles the child to this love; rather it is the natural love the parent feels for the life that they, with God’s help and grace, brought into the world.
 
We have seen children try to do things that please their loving parents.  They are eager to please them, especially when they are young.  Do we not act the same way toward God our Father?  Are we not anxious to act in ways that we feel should make that heavenly parent happy?  But think of the reward God promises.  It is not an allowance or a special treat, it is the grace and peace of Christ; it is the resurrection on the last day.  There is nothing we as human beings could do to make ourselves worthy of so great a prize.
 
Today let us give thanks to God the loving Father, who, through his great love for us, gave his only Son so that we, who are totally unworthy, might enjoy an eternity with him. We also pledge to take to heart the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel which asks for God’s defense against Satan.  Indeed, we must believe there is a war and we are both part of it and the enemy’s goal.
 
Pax

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[1] The picture is “Exorcism at Gerasenes” by James Tissot, c. 1890’s.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Hebrews, by Mary Healy © 2016, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids MI, p.255.
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, p.74.