Send us into the swine. Let us enter them

Heb 11,32-40; Ps 30; Mk 5,1-20

4 FEBRUARY

Satan is cunning and shrewd. It is a matter of cunning and shrewdness all aimed at doing evil. He knows that with Jesus nothing can be done. He owes him all obedience. If Jesus tells him to get out of the body of the man he keeps under his complete government, he will have to go out. If he goes out, it’s a defeat for him. How to ensure that his defeat turns into a victory? How to arrive at so that Jesus is made to get out of that territory in the same way that he will come out of the body of the possessed? By asking Jesus to send the Legion into pigs. Jesus consents and gives permission. The legion leaves the man so far possessed, enters the pigs, these fall from the cliff into the lake and drown in the waters. The herdsmen see what happened, they run to warn those of the city. They rush and ask Jesus to leave their territory. If He still were to let the devils enter some other herd of pigs, it would be the end for their economy. They would die of hunger. Jesus listens to their desire and leaves the territory. Did not Jesus know that he would have been invited to leave that region? Why then does he consent? Why does he let Satan to appear victorious and not won? Jesus is never moved by history either present or future. He is from the sole will of the Father, that knows in his fullness by living and dwelling in the communion of the Holy Spirit. In itself, even Jesus must not understand what he does – even if he understands it because he is in science and knowledge of the Spirit of God – he must only obey what his Father wants him to do. Today he wants the Son to give permission to the Legion to take possession of the pigs and the Son allows it. After the Father asks him that he listens to the voice of those people and the Son obeys. Obedience before and after. Everything in Jesus is from obedience to the command that the Father makes reach to his ear.

They 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 he 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.

The story is just as it was told. What is hidden for us in this story? What teaching must we draw out? Jesus wants to reveal to us a very high truth. The Father’s command must always be heard. Immediate obedience must be given to it. What produces the command is not up to us to evaluate it and not even to act according to the fruits it produces. In the Sanhedrin Jesus confesses his truth, just as it is written in the heart of his Father. What does this obedience produce? Death by crucifixion. The after does not belong to Christ, as it does not belong to us. The highest, immediate and pure obedience to every Word of the Lord belongs to us.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that our way is only obedience. The after is God’s.