Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (January 29, 2018): Blessings on the battlefield

Chúa Nhật, 28-01-2018 | 16:00:31

Today’s Readings:

2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
Psalm 3:2-7 (with 8a)
Mark 5:1-20
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012918.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_01_29.mp3


A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark.

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.


Good News Reflection: 

In today’s first reading, King David is publicly cursed out by an angry enemy, Shimei, but he handles it humbly. David could have had him executed for his attack against his authority, but David wonders, “What if the Lord’s trying to teach me something?” He recognizes the stinging truth in the angry man’s words.

Even though Shimei’s accusation against him was false — he had not murdered Saul’s family to take over the throne — David’s conscience reminds him that he was nonetheless guilty of murder. He had had an affair with the wife of one of his officers and then killed him so that he could have her.

David chooses to approach the problem with a non-defensive posture. He reasons that if the Lord could use Shimei’s evil tirade to keep him humble and repentant, then he would benefit from the curse.

How do we react when someone gets angry at us? (I’m not talking about verbal or physical abusiveness; that’s a different matter and it requires escape and justice.) Do we pause and ask the Lord whether there’s any truth to the accusations? Or do we defend ourselves to protect our image and retaliate with our own angry words?

David accepted the “affliction” of being ridiculed and bad-mouthed rather than inflict harm upon his enemy. In this, he foreshadowed the Messiah. Did you also notice another foreshadowing as he wept over Israel on the Mount of Olives?

When people accuse us or curse us, we too can reflect Jesus. And, rather than feel hurt by their attacks against us, we can find ways to benefit. What are we learning from the experience? How are we growing stronger in our faith? How’s it helping our humility?

A healthy spirituality includes a balance between being open to learning from accusations and being closed to complete degradation. God sees what is good in us, not just what we do wrong, and we are holy when we recognize what is good while learning what to improve.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus rescues a man from an army of demons. When we’re under attack and we choose self-defensiveness and retaliation (or the other danger: loss of self-esteem), we expose ourselves to the weapons of Satan’s battlefield. We live in the curse. But when we repent and look for the lessons that God himself is trying to teach us, we immediately begin to benefit. Curses become blessings, despite our enemy’s worst intentions.

Taking this humble approach requires effort. Our first reaction is to fight the enemy or sink into depression, but our soul yearns for Jesus to deliver us from the battle. The only way we can put ourselves into his protection is to handle the attacks his way.

May our all-powerful Lord help us to be humble in our daily battles ~ amen!

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, You want to deliver me from all those things that enslave me. Work all You need to do in me. I want to be free, living in Your freedom. Amen.

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica

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