Fight The Obsessive Evil Series

Monday of 4th week in Course 2021

One of the most helpful actions that a husband and wife can share with each other is from time to time to tell each other the story of their love. My wife and I are in the fiftieth year of marriage, so we have a fifty-one year story to share with each other and our family. Those recollections are of first encounters, of times of elation and of periods of disappointment or failure. But through it all, it is as it should be a story of faith in each other and especially in God, whose Divine Providence has directed our life together.

So it is with the Church, a Church that has a recollection not just of the past two thousand years, but of all what we used to call “bible history.” Here in the letter to the Hebrews we see the story of faith and the men and women whose faith cemented the whole people’s relationship with God. We began it on Saturday with the story of the beginning with Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. A lot of the text was skipped and today we see the culmination of the story of Israel before Jesus. We hear about victories and defeats in Israel’s struggle with the evil surrounding them and even within their community. We hear about martyrdom and exile, and we in the end see that their faith and hope was not fulfilled in their lifetimes, because apart from the Christian reality in Jesus Christ, they could not be perfected, they were not yet ready for divine union.

But Jesus Christ, even in His ministry, showed Himself to be victorious over all evil. We’ll hear the story in a few days, at the beginning of Lent, of His contest with Satan, the primary adversary of all human beings. That was the launching point of the battle, and Jesus won that first big skirmish. Today we hear the story of one of the more unforgettable skirmishes in the war with the evil ones. And it’s even a little humorous. God has a great sense of humor.

Let’s remember the situation of the Jews in first-century Judea. They were an occupied people. The Romans had sovereignty over the whole Middle East, and had to put down rebellions here and there almost the entire time. One of the legions that tramped through the land at such time, and also the primary legion that eventually sacked and destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, was the 10th legion Fretensis. Their legion banner featured one or the other of their warrior gods. It’s likely that in Judea, that animal god was a wild boar. Here in South Texas wild boars are, as in most of the world, dangerous pests. But they are also pigs, and part of the legionnaire’s diet. Bacon was one of their staples. But in the world of the Jews, where God-fearing children of Abraham would rather die than eat pork, it was an ongoing embarrassment and insult for that banner to fly.

So Jesus and His disciples left Galilee in Peter’s fishing boat and went to the other side of Lake Tiberias to Gerasa, or Gadara, which was a hillside town with caves around it that probably served as tombs. You can still see it on pilgrimage. The Gospels are a bit muddy about how many possessed men, one or two, came out of the tombs, but all agree that Jesus immediately took control of the battle. The man was terribly conflicted. On the one hand, he ran to Jesus and worshiped Him, so the man had faith, but then the demon made him fight off the exorcism that Jesus spoke. Jesus asked the demon for a name, which was a way of controlling the evil spirit, and was told “Legion, for we are many.” That was almost certainly a swipe at the Roman occupiers, for in the next moment the evil spirit begs Jesus not to send them back to hell. Instead they request sending into a nearby herd of swine. Their request is granted, and the pigs, controlled by the evil spirits, rush off the cliffs into the lake. They are drowned and the demons go back to hell anyway. God has a divine sense of humor.

Two responses to Jesus then result. The Gerasene economy has just been wrecked by the loss of two thousand livestock, so the locals beg Jesus to leave the territory. The healed man asks to join Jesus’s company. “No,” says Jesus, “go tell your family and friends about the mercy the Lord has shown on you.” In other words, “be an evangelist; share the good news.”

When someone develops an evil habit, it can become an obsession, with or without demonic possession. It may feel good at first, but heed the warning of the Gospel. The man was wandering in the darkness, screaming out and beating himself up. That’s what happens every time. Our evil habits are harmful to ourselves and everyone around us. Repent, and ask Jesus through the Church’s ministry to heal and forgive you. Take up the image and likeness of God you were made to assume, and tell everyone about the mercy the Lord has shown to you.