Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings for Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading I: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
An informant came to David with the report,
“The children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom.”
At this, David said to all his servants
who were with him in Jerusalem:
“Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom.
Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us,
then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword.”
As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing.
His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot.
All those who were with him also had their heads covered
and were weeping as they went.
As David was approaching Bahurim,
a man named Shimei, the son of Gera
of the same clan as Saul’s family,
was coming out of the place, cursing as he came.
He threw stones at David and at all the king’s officers,
even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard,
were on David’s right and on his left.
Shimei was saying as he cursed:
“Away, away, you murderous and wicked man!
The LORD has requited you for all the bloodshed in the family of Saul,
in whose stead you became king,
and the LORD has given over the kingdom to your son Absalom.
And now you suffer ruin because you are a murderer.”
Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king:
“Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over, please, and lop off his head.”
But the king replied: “What business is it of mine or of yours,
sons of Zeruiah, that he curses?
Suppose the LORD has told him to curse David;
who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?’”
Then the king said to Abishai and to all his servants:
“If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life,
how much more might this Benjaminite do so?
Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction
and make it up to me with benefits
for the curses he is uttering this day.”
David and his men continued on the road,
while Shimei kept abreast of them on the hillside,
all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on 2 Sm 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
Recall that Nathan had said that the Lord would put enmity in the House of David for the sins of murder and adultery he had committed when he took Bathsheba. Following this prediction, the child born to David and Bathsheba died in spite of David’s contrite attempt to convince God to spare it. In addition, David’s eldest son Amnon was killed by another son Absalom after he (Amnon) had raped Absalom’s sister and then further dishonored her by casting her out.
These actions ultimately led to the situation we hear about today. King David goes to the Mount of Olives, once more to beg for God’s mercy. Even though God has promised that David himself will not be killed, nothing good will come of this and he is humiliated even further as he goes on his penitential pilgrimage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. (8a) Lord, rise up and save me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
The third psalm is an individual lament, clearly an echo of Kind David’s sorrow as all that the Lord has given to him seems to be at risk with no sign that God will come to his aid. In spite of this apparent abandonment, the singer has faith that God will continue to defend his servant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Mark 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.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
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.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising 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?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come 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.
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.”
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.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed 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.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mk 5:1-20
We are given St. Mark’s version of Jesus casting out the multitude of demons and sending them into the heard of swine. It is important to note that this is a pagan region so what the Lord is doing in helping the man with unclean spirits is ministering to non-Hebrews indicating the breadth of his mission. Also in this story the demon addresses him as “Jesus, Son of the Most High God” a title that identifies him clearly and without equivocation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
Those of us who are not mystics (which is probably most of us these days) may have some belief issues with the story of Jesus casting out the unclean spirits described in the Gospel of St. Mark. Did Jesus really cast out these unclean spirits and cause them to go into swine? From a purely logical perspective, we see the message from the Gospel in the following way:
First, we understand, as St. Mark did, that Jesus has authority over all of God’s creation. This authority is constantly being contested by the evil one who himself was cast out of God’s presence. If we believe that God’s essence manifests itself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; can we not also believe that God’s greatest foe would not also have a spirit of evil that could find entry into the soul of humankind?
When Jesus encounters these manifestations, as he does in this fifth chapter of St. Mark, he recognizes it for what it is. The man “…had been dwelling among the tombs”; in other words living among the dead and completely out of touch with humanity. The encounter between this man and Jesus must have seemed to the pagans who inhabited this region must have seemed surreal. As we have seen time and again, evil recognizes good. The spirit of evil recognizes its foe announcing ““What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” Seeing the essence of what he faced, Jesus commanded the spirit of evil to leave its human host. The evil responds “Swear by God you will not torture me!” (using the Jerusalem translation).
The next part of the exchange has its roots in ancient lore. It is presumed from ancient times that in order for one person to have authority over another person or thing they must use the proper name for that individual or item. We see this from the earliest biblical references as God gives man authority to name all of his earthly creation but withholds any name for himself. The implication is that man may not command God. In this instance Jesus asks for the name of the unclean spirit to which he receives the reply “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
The formula is established, Jesus knows the name of the unclean spirits and that fact is recognized as the spirit pleads with Jesus not to destroy them outright. The spirits ask that they be sent into the swine that are there. To the Jewish reader, to whom Swine are considered “unclean” this would make sense – unclean spirits being sent into unclean animals, reinforcing Mosaic Law. Clearly even the lowly hogs could not stand since we are told the rushed into the sea and were drown.
We’ve spent a lot of time dissecting the incident in Gerasenes; so what is the lesson there for us? First we must come to grips with the notion that there is a spirit of evil that is ready to move into us as soon as we let our guard down. Second the only protection we have against such attacks is the one who has authority over them, Jesus. We must have him thoroughly installed so that when we encounter that spirit of evil we can recognize it instantly and it will of course recognize Jesus, Son of the Most High God, in us.
Our prayer today is that we may grow in faith and love of God to a point where we have the ability to resist evil in all its forms. We also pray for those who have succumbed to that force and ask that they find the Lord who will wash all evil away.
Pax
[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture is “Christ Encounters ‘Legion’”, Artist and Date are UNKNOWN
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
Readings for Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading I: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
An informant came to David with the report,
“The children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom.”
At this, David said to all his servants
who were with him in Jerusalem:
“Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom.
Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us,
then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword.”
As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing.
His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot.
All those who were with him also had their heads covered
and were weeping as they went.
As David was approaching Bahurim,
a man named Shimei, the son of Gera
of the same clan as Saul’s family,
was coming out of the place, cursing as he came.
He threw stones at David and at all the king’s officers,
even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard,
were on David’s right and on his left.
Shimei was saying as he cursed:
“Away, away, you murderous and wicked man!
The LORD has requited you for all the bloodshed in the family of Saul,
in whose stead you became king,
and the LORD has given over the kingdom to your son Absalom.
And now you suffer ruin because you are a murderer.”
Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king:
“Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over, please, and lop off his head.”
But the king replied: “What business is it of mine or of yours,
sons of Zeruiah, that he curses?
Suppose the LORD has told him to curse David;
who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?’”
Then the king said to Abishai and to all his servants:
“If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life,
how much more might this Benjaminite do so?
Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction
and make it up to me with benefits
for the curses he is uttering this day.”
David and his men continued on the road,
while Shimei kept abreast of them on the hillside,
all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on 2 Sm 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
Recall that Nathan had said that the Lord would put enmity in the House of David for the sins of murder and adultery he had committed when he took Bathsheba. Following this prediction, the child born to David and Bathsheba died in spite of David’s contrite attempt to convince God to spare it. In addition, David’s eldest son Amnon was killed by another son Absalom after he (Amnon) had raped Absalom’s sister and then further dishonored her by casting her out.
These actions ultimately led to the situation we hear about today. King David goes to the Mount of Olives, once more to beg for God’s mercy. Even though God has promised that David himself will not be killed, nothing good will come of this and he is humiliated even further as he goes on his penitential pilgrimage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. (8a) Lord, rise up and save me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
The third psalm is an individual lament, clearly an echo of Kind David’s sorrow as all that the Lord has given to him seems to be at risk with no sign that God will come to his aid. In spite of this apparent abandonment, the singer has faith that God will continue to defend his servant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Mark 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.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
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.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising 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?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come 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.
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.”
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.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed 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.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mk 5:1-20
We are given St. Mark’s version of Jesus casting out the multitude of demons and sending them into the heard of swine. It is important to note that this is a pagan region so what the Lord is doing in helping the man with unclean spirits is ministering to non-Hebrews indicating the breadth of his mission. Also in this story the demon addresses him as “Jesus, Son of the Most High God” a title that identifies him clearly and without equivocation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
Those of us who are not mystics (which is probably most of us these days) may have some belief issues with the story of Jesus casting out the unclean spirits described in the Gospel of St. Mark. Did Jesus really cast out these unclean spirits and cause them to go into swine? From a purely logical perspective, we see the message from the Gospel in the following way:
First, we understand, as St. Mark did, that Jesus has authority over all of God’s creation. This authority is constantly being contested by the evil one who himself was cast out of God’s presence. If we believe that God’s essence manifests itself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; can we not also believe that God’s greatest foe would not also have a spirit of evil that could find entry into the soul of humankind?
When Jesus encounters these manifestations, as he does in this fifth chapter of St. Mark, he recognizes it for what it is. The man “…had been dwelling among the tombs”; in other words living among the dead and completely out of touch with humanity. The encounter between this man and Jesus must have seemed to the pagans who inhabited this region must have seemed surreal. As we have seen time and again, evil recognizes good. The spirit of evil recognizes its foe announcing ““What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” Seeing the essence of what he faced, Jesus commanded the spirit of evil to leave its human host. The evil responds “Swear by God you will not torture me!” (using the Jerusalem translation).
The next part of the exchange has its roots in ancient lore. It is presumed from ancient times that in order for one person to have authority over another person or thing they must use the proper name for that individual or item. We see this from the earliest biblical references as God gives man authority to name all of his earthly creation but withholds any name for himself. The implication is that man may not command God. In this instance Jesus asks for the name of the unclean spirit to which he receives the reply “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
The formula is established, Jesus knows the name of the unclean spirits and that fact is recognized as the spirit pleads with Jesus not to destroy them outright. The spirits ask that they be sent into the swine that are there. To the Jewish reader, to whom Swine are considered “unclean” this would make sense – unclean spirits being sent into unclean animals, reinforcing Mosaic Law. Clearly even the lowly hogs could not stand since we are told the rushed into the sea and were drown.
We’ve spent a lot of time dissecting the incident in Gerasenes; so what is the lesson there for us? First we must come to grips with the notion that there is a spirit of evil that is ready to move into us as soon as we let our guard down. Second the only protection we have against such attacks is the one who has authority over them, Jesus. We must have him thoroughly installed so that when we encounter that spirit of evil we can recognize it instantly and it will of course recognize Jesus, Son of the Most High God, in us.
Our prayer today is that we may grow in faith and love of God to a point where we have the ability to resist evil in all its forms. We also pray for those who have succumbed to that force and ask that they find the Lord who will wash all evil away.
Pax
[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture is “Christ Encounters ‘Legion’”, Artist and Date are UNKNOWN
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
3 comments:
This passage is difficult for me to understand. Why did Jesus not send the devil away completely instead of sending him into the swine herd? Why was Jesus seemingly negotiating with the devil?
Farmer Blue - That's a great question! It begs and even deeper one; why did God allow evil to exist in the world he created? Did he place the serpent in the garden? Did he send Satan to tempt his son in the wilderness?
The question is not one I can answer but I suspect it must be related to why he created us with free will. If all the choices available to us were choices that would be pleasing to God, would we really have free will? If only positive influences were at work in the world, would we be free to worship God or not?
The scripture passage does not tell us why the Lord chose to allow the unclean spirits to go into the herd of swine. We may only speculate that it was for his purpose and the Father's greater glory.
Pax,
Dcn. Jim
Deacon Jim,
I think you are on to something when you speak about free will. It is, perhaps, the theological subtext to this particular Gospel message.
The demoniac has lost control of all volition (free will) by Satan's supersession and needs to have this essential attribute of God-given nature returned to him post haste. Without the faculty of free will, the man is a slave to the most evil of masters, and he will most certainly die.
Ultimately, this condition cannot be allowed to continue because, if it does, both body and soul will be extinguished. The demoniac finds himself in a desperate state indeed. Redemption is required and Jesus has come to his aid.
At first, the devil seems to be negotiating with Christ, but on close examination, we see that he is really pleading with the Son of the Most High for his very existence.
It is sheer drama that Mark puts a halt in the text at the very moment in the exorcism when Jesus commands the demon directly by means of a parenthetical. To whit: ("He had been saying to him, Unclean spirit, come out of the man!"). The suddeness of this turn in punctuation puts us -- and all other witnesses to the event -- into the very center of the confrontation. It is at this point that we hear Christ turn the tables on the devil. In contrast to the devil's feeble tactic at comandeering our Lord by use of a title ("Son of the Most High God"), Jesus commands the evil spirit to reveal his name -- which is "legion" -- so that His mastery of the situation and of the true cause of this disaster might be exposed to the light of Christ.
The devil's response is patheticly weak. The evil one enters an anguished plea to be sent into a herd of swine. Obligingly, Jesus does just that, and we witness the headlong suicide of pigs tumbling over a cliff into the sea. There is no negotiation taking place here, rather, we see Jesus excercising His power and majesty to restore a tortured man back to the fullness of his faculties.
I think that part of the story here is that God desires us to be free of all evil constraint so that we might willfully choose to follow Him and be redeemed. When the exorcism is complete, the man once-possessed becomes a faithful witness to his community to the saving power of Christ.
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