The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our experience of adversity and our relationship to God in those times.
Peace on the Journey
The reading from the Second Book of Samuel relates how David flees from Jerusalem as Shimei curses David.
* [16:8] Blood shed…Saul: probably refers to the episode recounted in 21:1–141
Psalm 3 urges trust in God under adversity.
* [Psalm 3] An individual lament complaining of enemies who deny that God will come to the rescue (Ps 3:2–3). Despite such taunts the psalmist hopes for God’s protection even in sleep (Ps 3:4–7). The Psalm prays for an end to the enemies’ power to speak maliciously (Ps 3:8) and closes peacefully with an expression of trust (Ps 3:9).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac.
* [5:19] Go home: Jesus did not accept the man’s request to remain with him as a disciple (Mk 5:18), yet invited him to announce to his own people what the Lord had done for him, i.e., proclaim the gospel message to his pagan family; cf. Mk 1:14, 39; 3:14; 13:10.3
Eileen Wirth comments that the action in the Gospel account is so gripping that it’s hard to focus on the passage’s message: that Jesus can free us from our OWN demons. We all have them and they take many forms. No one is exempt from depression, anxiety, addiction or being unable to overcome our favorite vices. We may not be publicly possessed like the man in Mark’s gospel, but our demons can deny us “the peace that passes all understanding.”
Jesus isn’t going to drive my own difficulty forgiving and forgetting into any beast wandering my neighborhood, so I need to start by identifying my issue as a demon, admitting my need for help and praying for it. The Jesuit Examen seems like it would work especially well for this exercise but the important thing is to seek the help we need, however we do it. Then we have to trust that Jesus will respond. If he could drive a legion of demons from a violently troubled man like the one in today’s gospel, he can help us combat our own legions of garden-variety neurotic behaviors, favorite vices, hurts and grudges.4
Don Schwager quotes “The God-Man beheld,” by Gregory of Nazianzus (330 - 390 AD).
"Yes, he is recognized by demons (Luke 4:33-34, Mark 1:23-24), drives out demons (Matthew 8:16, Mark 1:34), drowns deep a legion of spirits (Matthew 8:32; Mark 5:9,13; Luke 8:30,33) and sees the prince of demons falling like lightning (Luke 10:18). He is stoned, yet not hit (John 8:59; 10:31,39); he prays yet he hears prayer (Matthew 8:13; Mark 1:35). He weeps (John 11:35), yet he puts an end to weeping (Luke 7:13; 8:522; 23:28). He asks where Lazarus is (John 11:34) - he was man; yet he raises Lazarus (John 11:43-44) - he was God." (excerpt from ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 5:1-20 suggests Jesus may have delivered us from a demon, or harassment or the lies of the evil one? Healing in our body or in our heart? Transformation in our mindset or in our marriage? Has Jesus given us his peace in place of anxiety? Forgiveness of our sins? If so, then we are the perfect candidates for sharing that good news with others! We may not know quite what to say, but simply living out and sharing what Jesus has done in our life can give someone hope that he is still at work in the world today.
Jesus longs to give you greater freedom. Just as the people in today’s Gospel were amazed when the delivered man told them what Jesus had done for him, so too let the people around you know what Jesus has done for you. May they too be amazed and filled with hope! “Jesus, thank you for all that you have done for me and for making me a witness to your deliverance.”6
Friar Jude Winkler shares the backstory of the resentment of the tribe of Benjamin towards David. Jesus overcomes the traditional Jewish avoidance of graveyards to free the possessed pagan. Friar Jude notes Jesus' concern that the man had been separated from his family for too long.
A post on Franciscan Media comments that Saint John Bosco’s theory of education could well be used in today’s schools. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.
John Bosco educated the whole person—body and soul united. He believed that Christ’s love and our faith in that love should pervade everything we do—work, study, play. For John Bosco, being a Christian was a full-time effort, not a once-a-week, Mass-on-Sunday experience. It is searching and finding God and Jesus in everything we do, letting their love lead us. Yet, because John realized the importance of job-training and the self-worth and pride that come with talent and ability, he trained his students in the trade crafts, too.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that right relationship is the central theme of most biblical stories. One way to read the entire Bible is to note the gradual unveiling of our faces, the gradual creating of “persons” capable of relationship with God and all others. We grow from infants totally receiving love, to teenage love, to infatuation, to adult communion. Biblical spirituality has the potential of creating persons who can both receive and give out of love, and love that is perfectly free. We all fear and avoid intimacy, it seems. It is too powerful and demands that we also “have faces,” that is, self-confidence, identity, dignity, and a certain courage to accept our own unique face. Then we have a greater challenge—once we have discovered our own face, we must be willing to give it away to another.
In the philosophical traditions in which Western Christians have been educated up to now, truth is formed and found by the private mind and its collections of agreed-upon ideas. Identity can be achieved autonomously, with a certain kind of self-sufficiency. Thus, we speak of the “self-made person” and familiar cultural truth. Jesus instead defines truth itself as relational rather than conceptual. He says “I am the truth” (John 14:6) and then immediately describes himself as one who is in absolute relationship with his “Father” (14:7, 9–10) and the Spirit who is in relationship to both (14:16–18). This rearranges the world of religion from arguments over ideas and concepts into a world of encounter, relationship, and presence to the face of the other. That changes everything.8
The struggles of our life have required us to “face up” to our gratitude to the love of others and the Spirit for the strength to continue on our journey.
References
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