February 01, 2021

Mk 5: 1-20

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Ultimate freedom

While the account from today’s Gospel may stand outside of our personal experience, in some ways we are all bound and lacking in freedom.  However, the gift of Ignatian Spirituality is that it is both an invitation and a tool to bring us to greater freedom.  The Spiritual Exercises allows us not only to see ourselves as we are, but more importantly as God sees us – as loved sinners invited into companionship to share in the work of realizing the Reign of God.  Each of us has compulsions or inhibitions, weaknesses and experiences of shame, areas of darkness or sin.  But where we are bound, God’s love is boundless, where we lack freedom, God brings liberation. John English, SJ, in his book Spiritual Freedom, noted “Ultimate freedom requires an acceptance of oneself as historically coming from God, going to God, and being with God.  It includes a sense of well-being, self-identity, and basic peace.  A person who is thus free can in peace answer the questions, ‘Who am I?  Where am I going?’  There St. Ignatius’s questions form part of the process of freedom and are its expression: ‘What have I done for Christ?  What am I doing for Christ?  What ought I do for Christ?’”1 —Bill Hobbs is the Associate Director of the Jesuit Retreat Center in Parma, OH.

Prayer

May you live well this day, with an open, generous heart.
May you know that you and your life matters.
May you remember the truth of who you are.
May you be a bridge to awakening.
May you be empowered to bless others.
May you always know that you are loved.

—Judith Rich

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