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.
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
Do you fear the devil? If you have faith
in Jesus you need not fear the devil! But human as we are many of us fear the
devil, and what is the reason for this fear? It’s our feeble faith in Jesus.
In the gospel there is this man violently
possessed by an evil spirit he is so powerful that no one could subdue him.
Perhaps the possessed man was briefly in control of himself after which he was
again taken control by the evil spirit.
In his brief moment of self-control he saw
Jesus from a distance and he run to Him. To shortcut this long story the man
was eventually freed by Jesus from evil possession.
There are many evils that possesses us
nowadays: the evil of greed, lust, pride, materialism, arrogance and many more
evils that take control of us. Do you want to be healed from these evils?
Humbly pray to Jesus and ask Him to free you from these evils.
Oftentimes we underestimate the power of
Jesus to make a big impact in our lives; this is normally caused by our lack of
faith and our lack of fidelity to His teachings. This is the main reason why
many are still possessed by the many evils of this world. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas