Monday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

I am moved by one particular detail in the story of the Gerasene demoniac: “no one could restrain him any longer.”

The Gerasenes had tried to help him. There wasn’t much they could do. They had no medicines, knowledge or equipment. They could chain the tormented man and prevent him from hurting himself but he tore himself free. Ask any prison warden. It’s not easy to imprison a human being.

These simple folks were doing the best they could. Their compassion went far, but not far enough to ease the madman’s suffering. And surely they suffered too. We can only imagine the fear of the children as they heard him screaming in the night. What did their parents say to explain such horror? We can imagine his family and neighbors gathering to discuss what might be done. How far will he go? How far can we let him go before we must do something unspeakable, unthinkable? 

He was somebody’s darling child, somebody’s brother, somebody’s uncle. He might have been a husband and father. The whole community suffered his insanity.

I notice too the man stayed among the tombs, out of town where he could not harm anyone but himself. There was just enough restraint in his tormented mind that he would not roam the village streets. He would neither enter the unwalled, defenseless town nor climb through their open windows.

Good men are hard to find under the best of circumstances, and here was a man they certainly loved, who had just enough sanity to avoid terrorizing his people in their own homes and streets.

Jesus spoke a word, “Unclean spirit, come out of him.”

As you heard, the villagers did not know what to make of Jesus. They were certainly grateful but he was altogether too much for them. The hour for announcing the good news to gentiles had not yet come and Jesus immediately departed. But he insisted the healed man should go home. He would not permit him to come with him.

This story is certainly about Jesus and a possessed man, but it’s also about Jesus’ compassion for villages, families, and communities. We pray daily that he will come visit our towns and cities and rid us of our intractable demons.