They begged him to leave their district
2 JULY (Mt 8,28-34)
Jesus is the one person that always upsets the paths of men. Every day, we all build roads of thriving economy, based on the exploitation of the brothers. We build paths of law and justice raised on immorality and transgression of the commandments. We raise Babel towers on the blood of the poor and needy. We invent ways of peace at the cost of the extermination of entire nations. Imagine ways of prosperity and well-being for the privileged few, while the vast majority of humanity lives a subhuman life. We work for our interest denying and trampling the interests of others. We want the best for us, and we ignore that the other does not even have the basic necessities for living. We think of the globalization of markets while we fracture the globalization of solidarity and brotherhood among peoples. We act for men, but against men. We civilized in a sea of incivility. We profess ourselves altruistic but taking care to fatten our selfishness.
Jesus does not know these pathways as his. They are ways of sin, darkness, death, denial and killing of the human person. His ways are of light, grace, life, truth, justice, communion and solidarity. Jesus knows only one good way: one single man is worth as much as God, rather more than God, according to the law of his love. Until we will not enter into this dimension of human truth, we will always raise skyscrapers of hypocrisy, immorality, wickedness and all other inhumanity. It is easy to know whether our way is good or ill, rotten. It suffices to think about the value that we give to every human person. Until we are not ready to die for him, to give up our lives for him, we are still too far from the path of Jesus.
Today, Jesus is in a pagan territory. Two possessed people come to meet him. They know that Jesus came to destroy their kingdom. They precede and ask him to be sent into a herd of swine. Jesus agrees with them and they come out of the men and invade that large herd of swine and these all fall into the lake below and drown. The ways of men are for the herd of pigs rather than for the two demon-possessed. These are a secondary issue. They give some discomfort but do not disturb the market economy. You can also get used to them and you do get used easily. The economy must always be thriving instead. In fact, not only two demoniacs are to be sacrificed to it, but every other man must abide by its laws. Jesus does not think this way. He is for men, for every man, for all men.
When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go then!” They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.
There is no room for Jesus in this world. He must leave our territory. He puts a strain on our economic, social, political and community ways, all structured on the darkest selfishness. This is because we forget that we are all from God’s blessing and God never bestows his blessing without him. They are not two things: God and his blessing, but one thing. God blesses us if we receive him. If we have him, we have his blessing. If we do not have Him, we do not even have his blessing and we perish miserably. Do we have God if we accept Jesus and who Jesus is? He is every man who comes into our territory to destroy our free market economy. He apparently destroys it. He destroys the old economy. He creates the new one that is all based on God’s blessing and his every gift of grace and truth.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us accept Lord Jesus.