They began to beg him to leave their district

MONDAY 3 FEBRUARY (Mk 5,1-20)

In the life of Jesus nothing happens by chance. He is always moved by the Holy Spirit. Today the Lord takes his disciples to the pagan world to show them the spiritual state of those people. In that region in which the true God is not known, Satan governs every man’s mind, heart, will, feelings and desires. A legion of impure spirits has also taken over a man’s body. When the impure spirit gets possession of a body, there are no human remedies that can dominate him. Neither chains nor chains are sufficient. Satan is the strongest than all men. Even if all men got together, no one could ever dominate him. Jesus comes to this region. How powerful is he? He is not powerful and neither is he strong. He is no more powerful and stronger than Satan. He is the Strong, the Strong God, He is the Almighty, the Almighty God. He is the Creator and the Lord of every impure spirit and everyone owes him obedience. They do not go to the pigs of their own free will. They want to go into them, but they ask the Strong God, their Lord and Creator, the Almighty God to let them go into them. Jesus allows it and they take possession of the pigs and urge them to jump off the cliff into the sea. In a single moment a herd of about two thousand pigs perishes. Jesus allows it to teach every man that the whole universe is not worth a man. All creation is not worth a human person. The human person is of divine, eternal and supernatural value. It is worth as much as the life of Christ Crucified is worth.

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.

Pagans do not know the value of a human life. For them the loss of about two thousand swine is very heavy. Their economy has been in crisis. But what is the use of an economy without taking into account the value of a human life? What is the use of an economy in which human life is sacrificed to it? The pagans are afraid of Jesus and pray him to move away from their territories. They live on an order of sin. If this order is destroyed, they cannot live. But Jesus came to abolish the order of sin and replace it with the order of truth and grace. This is the great battle of non faith against the faith. Non-faith strives to preserve the order of sin. Faith works so that someone decides to abandon the order of sin and enters the order of grace and truth. The healed man wishes he could leave his territory. Instead, he must stay and show every man that we can get out of the order of sin and immorality. But you can go out only if Jesus comes and frees. Without Jesus no one will come out of the order of sin and immorality.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, ask Christ Jesus to free us from the order of sin.