February 4, 2013

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Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 323

Reading 1 from St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews
Heb 11:32-40

Brothers and sisters:
What more shall I say?
I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms,
did what was righteous, obtained the promises;

Justification by faith and works.  That is what this whole chapter is about.  By faith, the ancients worked doing what was righteous and obtained the promises.

they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires,
escaped the devouring sword;
out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle,
and turned back foreign invaders.

Women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance,
in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point;
they went about in skins of sheep or goats,
needy, afflicted, tormented.
The world was not worthy of them.

They did astounding, marvelous and wonderful deeds, by faith.  Thus, becoming just in the eyes of God, the world was not worthy of them.

They wandered about in deserts and on mountains,
in caves and in crevices in the earth.
Yet all these, though approved because of their faith,
did not receive what had been promised.
God had foreseen something better for us,
so that without us they should not be made perfect.

Yet, although they obtained the immediate promises, (see the end of the first paragraph), they did not obtain the promised perfection, they did not enter the true promised land, Heaven.  They awaited their purification in the bosom of Abraham, aka, the Limbo of the Fathers.

They were just in the eyes of God because of their faith and good works.  But they did not  enter Heaven until they were baptized by the Holy Spirit.  And that could not happen until Christ died on the Cross.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24

R. (25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

All who believe in God should have the assurance that God's word is never broken.

How great is the goodness, O LORD,
which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
you show in the sight of the children of men.

Those who take refuge in God will see His great goodness.

R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.

God protects us from the evil plots of men.  And in God's house there is no arguing.

R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Blessed be the LORD whose wondrous mercy
he has shown me in a fortified city.

Praise God for the mercy He has shown His Church.

R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Once I said in my anguish,
“I am cut off from your sight”;
Yet you heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried out to you.

Once I felt as though God had abandoned me.  Yet God answered my prayers when I cried out to Him.

R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
The LORD keeps those who are constant,
but more than requites those who act proudly.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

Love the Lord all you who are faithful.  God rewards the faithful and punishes the proud.  

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 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.

Jesus and His disciples landed on the pagan side of the sea.  As soon as they got there, a man possessed by evil spirits came up to them.

The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.

The man was living in a cemetery because he could not be restrained even by chains.

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.

He had broken many chains with which he had been tied and no person was strong enough to hold him down.

Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.

So night and day he roamed the cemetery and the surrounding area, making noise and hurting 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?

When he saw Jesus, he immediately recognized that He is the Son of God and worshipped Him.

I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”

Its not clear whether it is the man or the spirit speaking.  But I believe it is the man, because he prayed in God's name, saying,  "do not torment me!"  Which, in my opinion, means, "Get this demon out of me, NOW!"

(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)

But Jesus was already calling the evil spirit 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.

Then Jesus appears to be speaking to the demon and asks its name.  The demon calls itself "Legion" because there are many of them in the man.

Now, the demon pleads that Jesus not drive it away from that territory.

The reason is clear.  There are many "ungodly" people in a nation of unbelieving pagans.  Therefore, when it leaves this man, it will go to another.

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.”

Then, they, the demons, plead that Jesus send them into some pigs that are in sight of them on the hill.

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.

And He let them do so, they entered the herd of swine, about 2000 and the herd ran down the hill to the sea and 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.

The pig herders saw what had happened and were of course, dismayed.  Their livelihood had just been drowned in the sea.

So, the pig herders ran to tell the people of the area.

As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.

When the people of the area heard, they came to see for themselves and found the formerly possessed man cured 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.

When they saw this and when the entire incident was explained to them, they became fearful.

Then they began to beg him to leave their district.

And they begged Jesus to leave.

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.

As Jesus was preparing to leave, the man who had been possessed as Jesus if he could come with Him.  But Jesus said he should go to his family and tell them what God had done for Him.  And the man obediently turned around and began to tell all the people in the pagan nation, what Jesus had done for Him.