Monday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2021

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.

This episode with the Gerasene demoniac follows directly after that of Jesus calming the storm.  We can see in this that the Lord Jesus prepared his Apostles for the even more terrifying experience of facing Legion by showing them his power over the nearly disastrous squall.  We could also see this as the demons, aware of the approach of the Lord over the sea, attempting to scare him and drive him off, if not kill him, by causing this storm.  The Lord, then, wards off this attack, then heads directly for his enemies.  “At once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.”  The demons, having failed with the storm, now attempt to thwart the Lord with the hideous appearance of the man whom they have seized, as though to warn Jesus that he will wind up even as that man: “Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.”  No monster portrayed in our movies approaches this man in his horrible aspect.  “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”  The devil often appeals to humans that he is the wronged party in his struggle with God, that he is an underdog worthy of sympathy.  He does this during modern exorcisms, and he does it in our society, attempting to make us normalize, accept, and celebrate that which should not be.  Here he tries to disguise himself as a lowly creature whom no one, let alone  “the Son of the Most High God”, should deign to notice.  Almost comically, the demon hides behind the man whose life he has torn apart, as though he and the man were one and the same.

“He asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ”  Jesus ignores the evil one’s entreaty and commands it to give its name, thereby forcing its surrender.  He does this for the sake of the Apostles, who are watching nearby, stiff and pale.  He is teaching them about his authority and power.  Ultimately this will help them to understand how easily he could have escaped his Death on the Cross if he had chosen to do this, and to see his Passion and Death as a true, voluntary Sacrifice.  Its answer, “Legion”, does not necessarily imply that six thousand demons inhabited this man.  It might have meant even more.  “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”  Anything is preferable to a demon than to return to hell after being expelled from a man.  Its fellow demons jeer and mock with great ferocity.  It would have been worse for Legion because not even it as an immense mob of spirits could hold onto a single man, driven out by a single man with a simple command.  The Lord allows them to enter the vast herd of swine feeding on the hillside.  This took place early in the day, since the Lord and the Apostles had crossed the Sea of Galilee that evening.  The weather was calm.  A few clouds might have dotted the sky, but it was mostly clear following the squall.  And then, without warning, the man fell to the ground, unconscious, and the swine howled and stampeded.  Now, a pig can squeal as loudly as a hundred decibels or more.  Mark tells us there were two thousand pigs in the herd.  The high pitched sounds of the shrieks of the pigs, even from a distance, would have been shattering.  The ground, too, would have shook as they pounded their way desperately for the cliff.  Not even a pig wanted to be home for a demon.

And then it was over, and a sweet quiet reigned until a crowd from the nearby town came up.  The formerly possessed man was “sitting there clothed and in his right mind.”  Perhaps one of the Apostles threw a blanket or his mantle over him.  The man looked about him in wonderment, untroubled for the first time in a very long time.  He did not know all that had happened.  He was bruised, gashed, and bleeding, but his mind was “right”.  It was “right” enough for him to ask the Lord if he could go with him.  But the Lord wanted him to stay, to witness to the Gentiles of the region what the God of the Jews had done for him, a Gentile.  And in this way prepare the land for the preaching of the Apostles after Pentecost.

Mark tells us that all those who later heard the man speak were “amazed” — a better word might be “awe-struck”.  The Evangelist does not tell us the reaction of the Apostles.