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Tell what the Lord has done for you

Today’s Gospel reminds us of the incredible power of Jesus the exorcist. He casts out a “legion” of demons from the Gerasene demoniac. There have been many modern scholars who wish to rebrand the New Testament cases of demonic possession as merely misdiagnosed mental illness. The thinking is that the ancients had no concept of such diseases,as we “enlightened” 21st-centry people do. This theory is preposterous on many levels, but there are two facts in this particular case that make such a diagnosis impossible.

One, as those who study demonology know, those possessed by malevolent spirits often exhibit enormous physical strength, disproportionate to their natural capacities. In this case, check.
Also, the fact that Jesus sent the demons into the pigs, who rushed headlong over the cliffs into the sea (what a hogwash!), is an objective physical manifestation that cannot be explained away by an interior, subjective mental state.

The freed man is so grateful to the Lord that he desires with all his heart to join the Apostolic band – the hierarchy of the nascent Church, if you will. But Jesus says no. That’s not his vocation, as it were. Jesus wants him to engage in a personal apostolate, telling everyone he meets about what Christ has done for him.

We are all called to the same mission. Our baptism demands that we seek two things: holiness and apostolate. If we don’t have that fiery passion to tell others about Christ, we may be in danger of falling into lukewarmness and eventually spiritual death.

Break those fetters, your own chains of fear that prevent you from speaking to your friends about the Lord. As Saint Paul says in another place, “the word of God is not chained” (2 Timothy 2:9).

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Sacramental Healing

Jesus healing a blind manToday’s Gospel reading at Mass cites a unique incident from Jesus’ career: a two-stage healing.

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village” (Mark 8:22-26).

There are two things we can learn from this:

1. This is more historical proof of Jesus as a wonderworker. No Christian is going to make up an account about Jesus’ healing not quite “working” the first time, especially when so many of Jesus’ miraculous deeds (healings, exorcisms, nature miracles) happen instantaneously, at his word, even from a distance. This smacks of authenticity and eyewitness detail. Furthermore, this is more evidence that the evangelists didn’t feel free to “invent” incidents from the life of Christ, or feel free to “edit” accounts of Jesus’ life that were passed on by tradents and collected into the Gospels. If that were the case, this account would have almost certainly been “cleaned up” by the evangelist, with the healing working at once.

2. This is a “sacramental” healing. Jesus didn’t need to take spittle and use that to heal the man’s vision. But the fact that he did shows that God can use matter to communicate his grace – that is, his very life. This should be obvious when considering the Incarnation itself. The body of Christ communicated, and was the very vehicle, of the life of God on earth. And Christ continues to communicate his healing powers through the sacraments of the Catholic Church. The sacraments each take ordinary, physical materials – water, bread, wine, oil – and, in the case of marriage, the very bodies of the spouses themselves – to communicate the life-giving power of God. The Eucharist, of course, is the greatest of all sacraments, because, as Saint Thomas aquinas once said, in all the other sacraments, the power of Christ is present; in the Eucharist, Christ himself is present – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

The sacraments of the Church bring the power to see life and eternity – all of reality – in ever clearer and sharper focus. Like the blind man, we don’t always see this clearly at first, even after receiving the sacraments. We have to go “outside the village” and never go back in, like Christ led out the blind man – we must leave our old ways behind. And, as Saint Jerome taught, the “spittle” of Christ, which represents his word, his teaching, must be applied to our lives – that is, obeyed – for the healing of our lives to be complete.

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Being “Abel” to Love God on Valentine’s Day

The Sacred Heart of JesusToday’s Mass readings remind us of the importance of loving God. How appropriate that they happen to fall on Valentine’s Day, for God’s love, poured out in the blood and water flowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the greatest experience of love we can ever hope to know. And such love can only be repaid with love. But stepping into the arena of love has it’s dangers, and this is even true in the relationship between God and humanity.

Daring to love can incite jealousy. The First Reading, from Genesis, speaks of the offering of Abel, firstborn son of Adam, made for love of God. This gift was far more pleasing to God than that of Abel’s brother, Cain. We all know what happened: Cain, in a fit of jealousy, murdered his own brother. The Church Fathers remind us that Abel was a type, or prefigurement, of Christ: he, like Jesus, was a shepherd (cf. John 10); he offered a sacrifice acceptable to the Lord (Jesus’ offering was his very self on the cross); and his blood was shed on the ground as he was murdered. The jealousy of the religious establishment of his day contributed to Jesus’ death.

Daring to love can also mean risking rejection. Today’s Gospel portrays Jesus as a sort of jilted lover:

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
“Why does this generation seek a sign?
Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Then he left them, got into the boat again,
and went off to the other shore.

– Mark 8:11-13

Truth be told, Jesus had already given more than enough signs by this point: healings, exorcisms, miracles. Just think of the feeding miracles! Just before this incident recorded in Mark 8, Jesus had fed 4,000 people (not counting the women and children), with seven loaves and a few small fish. Dinner and a show, as it were, perfect for Valentine’s day!

But the constant demand for miracles caused Jesus to sigh with deep disappointment. I’m sure at that point he felt a lot like a lover who is being used by his beloved. We have to love Jesus Christ for who he is, not what he can do for us. The constant demand for the miraculous indicates a selfishness and superficiality in the relationship, always asking for more proof of love when more than enough evidence exists already.

In the parallel account of this event in Matthew, Jesus says, “An evil an adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mt 12:40). “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That Jesus died for our sins and rose again should be proof enough of his love for us. For our part, we only need to remember that love can only be repaid with love. And love is deeds, not words.

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