Dear Friends,
There is an incident in the life of Jesus that has always challenged me to think carefully about my present way of being. Here is the incident as described in the Gospel of Matthew:
When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go then!” They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.
What is fascinating to me is that they prefer Jesus to leave the area even though he made the area better, safer. So, I ask myself, do I do the same? Do you do the same? Do we prefer the devil we know rather than the divinity we don’t? How often have we prayed for something to change, but when we learn from God what it will actually require inside of us to make the change, we prefer to keep things the same?
Maybe we do not even notice when Jesus has arrived in our lives. Do we have eyes to see and ears to hear when Jesus arrives? Even if we pray for deliverance, we tend to hope that it is a quiet return to our regular expectations and experience. What if when he comes, the healing demands a change in the way we live?
We often forget that Love in its effort to heal can be demanding. We forget that in the Exodus, salvation came by plagues and a passage through the Red Sea. We forget that transformation for the Israelite people came through the hard liberty of the desert. The Israelites surprisingly kept longing for a return to slavery in Egypt, hoping for a slightly less severe slavery. We forget that conquering the land took effort even though God was at their side. We forget the constant challenge of the prophets to reform the way we do things. We forget Jesus overturning tables, casting out demons, roaring at death, destroying it, rising again. We forget the sending the Spirit which comes as a mighty wind and Jesus’ promise that, like the wind, so will the disciples be – blown by the Spirit, we may not know where. Is this the deliverance we pray for?
Or are we like the Gadarenes? Content with a more comfortable bondage for ourselves and for others. Content to live with our problems because freedom is deemed too costly? Life, even life afflicted, can continue. The great irony is that the Gadarenes chose demonic affliction over the salvation of God which appears in the action of Jesus. He casts out the demons; they cast him out.
The change in their community was simply too much. They saw what he did to the two men possessed by demons. Now what might he do to them? Their prayer had been answered, but it did not look like what they expected. When I pray to God for deliverance, am I ready for God’s answer? Can I trust that the journey Love is going to take me on will be far beyond my imaginings and will always end in God’s goodness?
It seems like much of the world has asked Jesus to leave their community. They do not see the life that Jesus’ brings as valuable. They prefer the bondage they know to the freedom that only Jesus can bring. Perhaps by inviting Jesus deeper into our own lives and risking the change required, we might be an example for others of the wonder that can happen once Jesus becomes a regular guest in our home.
Peace,
Fr. Damian