OUT OF EGYPT?

“They were begging Him to go away from their district.” –Mark 5:17

It is thought by some that the devotion of Catholics to the Crucified Jesus, to His Passion and sufferings, the Stations of the Cross, the Precious Blood of Jesus, and to the relics of martyrs is morbid. This is hard for a non-Catholic to understand.

Yet there is fascination with the macabre in the secular culture of death. Rock groups celebrate the Grateful Dead, the Satanic and Gothic. Halloween is often twisted into a straight-out celebration of the ungodly.

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus triumphs over the demons possessing the demoniac. Why did the Gerasenes beg Jesus to leave after He set their town free of many demons? (Mk 5:17) In His Gospel, St. John declares: “Men loved darkness rather than light” (Jn 3:19).

It’s even harder to get Egypt out of Israel than it was to get Israel out of Egypt at the Exodus. The Israelites in the desert often looked back with longing on the so-called “benefits” of their slavery in Egypt (see Ex 16:2-3). Likewise, we are often tempted to look back with fondness on our former captivity in sin (see Lk 5:39).

There is no neutral ground in the battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Flee to Jesus. Cling to Him. Beg Him to deliver you fully from the infection of evil.

PRAYER: Father, “deliver us from evil” (see Mt 6:13).
PROMISE: “God had made a better plan, a plan which included us. ” –Heb 11:40
PRAISE: Steve separated from his drinking buddies and now has many brothers and sisters in Christ.