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"We will cure inordinate self-love not so much by direct attack as by keeping our eyes always on God. Indeed it is only by
doing this that we will acquire a true knowledge of ourselves at all, one that will reveal our shortcomings and yet is neither morbid or paralyzing, for it will make known to us at the same time God's goodness and what can be be and do by His grace."
- The Experience of God's Presence, by Anselm Moynihan, O.P.
(To know oneself in God . . . To be free in God's
presence.) |
Heb 11:32-40; Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Mk 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.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 5: 1-20 (Exorcising a hopeless case)
Jesus has ventured into an area inhabited by non-Jews. The story of the demoniac and the swineherd reminds us that Jesus has come to save all people, even the lowest of classes and the most hopeless of cases. The price of a human soul is worth more to God than anything else in the world. • Let your imagination recreate this scene for you. How did Jesus look at the demoniac? Hear him saying to you, Unclean spirits, be gone!” • What kind of involvement do you have with the poor, the underprivileged, and the outcasts of society?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK III: OF THE PROGRESS AND PERFECTION OF LOVE Chapter 7: That the charity of saints in this moral life equals, yea sometimes surpasses, that of the blessed. When after the labours and dangers of this mortal life, good souls arrive at the port of the eternal, they ascend to the highest and utmost degree of love to which they can attain; and this final increase being bestowed upon them in recompense of their merits, it is distributed to them, not only in good measure, but in a
measure which is pressed down and shaken together and running over, as Our Saviour says; so that the love which is given for reward is greater in every one than that which was given for meriting. Now, not only shall each one in particular have a greater love in heaven than ever he had on earth, but the
exercise of the least charity in heaven, shall be much more happy and excellent, generally speaking, than that of the greatest which is, or has been, or shall be, in this failing life: for there above, all the saints incessantly, without any intermission, exercise love; while here below God's greatest servants, drawn away and tyrannized over by the necessities of this dying life, are forced to suffer a thousand and a thousand distractions, which often take them off the practice of holy
love.
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