Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

When He reached the region of the Gadarenes on the other side, two men came to meet Him from among the tombs; they were possessed by demons, and so violent that no one dared pass that way.

One day a five year old boy climbed onto an eight ton road roller left idling near his home where some highway construction was being done. He pressed the buttons and pulled the levers like he saw the regular driver do. The machine started rolling and rolled over five automobiles before someone was able to get it under control. The boy was able to start the huge piece of equipment but he could not control it or stop it.

Sometimes our own lives are like that. We know how to start, but we can’t stop. We start out with freedom of choice, but we continue to choose the wrong thing until it is out of control and we cannot stop it. Any drug addict will tell you he or she would give anything to be freed of his or her habit which has him or her “hooked”. In sober moments the alcoholic hates himself for the hell that he creates in his home, but his bottle is like a chain from which he cannot break loose. So it is with the sex pervert, the compulsive gambler, the person married to his work, and so many others chained and bedeviled like the two men in today’s gospel story (Matt. 8:28-34). They could not control themselves. They were held captive and looked for freedom. We pray for people like that in every Divine Liturgy: “For the sick, the suffering, the captive, for their health and salvation.”

Our Lord freed those two unfortunate men from the terrible possession tormenting them. Jesus Christ today still has that power to destroy the demoniac in anyone. What no human being can do, Christ can. No one could set an alcoholic free until one day fifty some years ago, one alcoholic turned to Christ and went on the establish Alcoholics Anonymous. Today hundreds of thousands of alcoholics have been set free by God through A.A. There are similar kinds of groups working now with drug addicts. The names of the devils may not be the same as Our Lord exorcized in today’s gospel, but the power of Christ is greater than any demon can claim over a human being. No matter what kind of bedevilment may threaten our own lives, we have available to us the saving power of Jesus Christ if we want it and ask for it.

- by Msgr. John T. Sekellick, J.C.L.