“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

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Gospel: Mark 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.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Thirteen out of the eighteen miracles Jesus performs in Mark’s Gospel are miracles of healing. Four of them are exorcisms.

Jesus begins his healing ministry in the synagogue, casting out an “unclean spirit” from a man, as we heard in yesterday’s Gospel. Immediately afterwards, he travels to Simon Peter’s home, where he heals Simon’s mother-in-law.

Then Jesus enters the surrounding towns and villages where he heals a leper and a man who’s paralyzed.

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Mark narrates this healing ministry of Jesus in an outward fashion; the Lord begins his work in his own house, the synagogue. Then he moves outward into Simon Peter’s home, the “domestic church.” Then into the public square.

Finally, today Jesus moves into “defiled” Gentile territory – a cemetery. Mark says this man experienced a “violent squall” within, likely comparing what happened on the Sea of Galilee to what’s happening inside this man’s soul. He’s tortured.

But by the simple power of his voice, Christ casts this demon out, revealing there’s nowhere evil can hide; Jesus has power over everything and everyone.

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After the man is healed, he seeks to stay with Jesus – much like we do after the Lord reveals himself to us. Think about how you felt during a grace-filled period in prayer; during a retreat; or in the middle of a revealing conversation.  

We like to bask in the consolation.

But the Lord says to the man as he says to us, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”

Jesus wants this man to live out his newly found faith in the ordinary circumstance of his life – in his home, with his family, with the villagers he once knew.

That is often where the most effective Gospel work is done – in the ordinary circumstances of life. As Mother Teresa once said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” 

Be an agent of healing and reconciliation. 

What does that mean for me today?

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Image credits: (1) A-Z Quotes (2) Wikipedia (3) Pinterest