First Reading - Hebrews 11:32-40
Gospel - Mark 5:1-20
The first reading displays a beautiful demonstration of faith as manifested by the great heroes (judges, prophets, kings etc.) of the Old Testament. The passage highlights some important ideas about the great heroes; firstly, they set a great example of faith to people. Secondly, they endured everything in their lives; good and bad, hardships and difficulties, but they overcame them with the grace of God through their great faith. Thirdly, they surely manifested great valor and example of faith but were withheld the best gift of the way of perfection in Christ but is not so with the Christians. Therefore, the passage underlines the importance of faith in Jesus because that leads to the life of perfection.
The gospel presents a most exciting scene of exorcism done by Jesus. He casts a legion from the possessed man. The legion (it was a term used for for the Roman soldiers consisting of four to 6 thousand men but this also stands for the grave spiritual situation of the man) symbolises a great spiritual impairment of the person caused by the possessing demons. The demons in the person recognise the power of Jesus and his divinity. The powerful demons by their possession had made the man furious and dangerous submit to the power of Jesus and are cast out among the swine on the hill and perish. The furious man becomes gentle and calm and is restored to his family after the liberation from the demonic possession.
Dear friends, today we are reminded by the readings of today to believe in the power God. The first reading shows how great heroes of the Old Testament embody faith in their life. They believed that God was able to change their perilous situations they were facing. They accepted the situation and believed that God is able to revert the bad situations to good. We also have to accept the hardships we face and believe in God that He can change our hard times into good when it's opportune and according to His will.
The gospel reminds us that we too need liberation from the legion that are residing in us in the form of vices. The legion in the man worsened his social and spiritual life so are our vices within; the vices of greed, anger, gluttony, hatred, envy, licentiousness, selfishness, individualism, materialism, consumerism etc. They gradually deteriorate or corrode our inter-personal and spiritual lives. We do need to approach Jesus in order to be liberated from these bundles of vices residing in our hearts. Once we are liberated, we will also have a great joy to proclaim the good news that we would have experienced. Let's approach Jesus in faith that He may heal us from our vices and liberate us.
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