photo #1325389

Today's Gospel reading for Daily Mass (which varies on a two year schedule) is the story of the healing of the Gadarene demoniacs as recorded in Matthew 8:28-34. This event is also recorded in Mark 5:1-20 (covered in the daily reading for today last year) and Luke 8:26-39. My previous analysis posted on FB last year is reprinted below.HEALING OF THE GADARENE DEMONIACSFolks,Today’s Gospel reading for daily Holy Mass is the story of the healing of the Gadarene demoniac taken from Mark 5:1-20. Analogous passages exist in the other two Synoptic Gospels with some differences owning to how each author saw this event: Matthew 8:28-9:1 and Luke 8:26-39. There is an interesting aspect to this story related to the Legio Romana X Fretensis (Tenth Roman Legion of the Strait) stationed near the area where this healing took place. A map of the Roman Empire denoting where various legions were stationed is provided courtesy of Wikipedia. But first a summary of each Gospel writer’s account of this healing is provided below (yes, surprisingly Wikipedia did a fair job at summarizing, but I made some changes for the sake of accuracy).The Matthaean account shortens the story more dramatically and writes not of one possessed man, but of two. In this version, Jesus does not ask for the demon's name – an important element of traditional exorcism practice. The location is also changed to the region of the "Gadarenes" (Gadara) as in most Bible translations.The Markan account is likely the earliest recording of this event. Here Jesus goes across the sea into the "region of the Gerasenes" where a man "possessed by a demon" comes from the caves to meet him. People had tried to tie him down but he was too strong to be bound, even with chains for he would always break out of them; night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. Jesus approaches and calls the demon to come out of the man, who replies "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you in the name of God never to torment me!" Jesus asks the demon for his name and is told "My name is Legion, for we are many". The demons beg Jesus not to send them away, but instead to send them into the pigs on a nearby hillside, which he does. The herd, about two thousand in number, rush down the steep bank into the sea and are drowned. The man is now seen, dressed and restored to sanity: he asks to be included among the disciples who travel with Jesus, but he is refused and instructed to remain in the Decapolis region, to tell of "the great things the Lord has done ... and [how he] has had compassion on you". Some theologians have thus called the healed demoniac "the first apostle to the gentiles".The Lucan account is short like the Matthaean account but retains most of the details. One detail therein which the other gospel writers lack is a reference to both the demoniac’s nakedness and his subsequent clothing. At Luke 8:27, the gospel writer notes that the demoniac wore no clothes. Then he notes that he “was clothed and in his own mind” (Luke 8:35). Clothing is an important item in the Lucan narrative, which here portrays the demoniac’s development from his animal-like state to his restoration as a human being. Initially the possessed man has been expelled from the human race—that is, he is no better off than an animal without clothing—but, after his exorcism, his humanity is fully restored and he rejoins the human race, “clothed and in his right mind”. “Clothing [thus] marks the man’s transition from a feral, mad state to a human, rational one.”There is however an important point that usually goes unnoticed by most historians and theologians. In the region of Judaea and the Decapolis Rome stationed the Tenth Legion. This legion was founded by the young Gaius Octavius (later to become Imperator Augustus Caesar) in 41/40 BC to fight during the period of civil war that started the dissolution of the Roman Republic. Officially called Legio Romana X Fretensis, it existed until about AD 410. During the time of Christ it was stationed in the region of Syria, the Decapolis and Judaea. Its symbols were the bull — the holy animal of the goddess Venus (mythical ancestor of the gens Julia) — a ship (probably a reference to the Battles of Naulochus and / or Actium), the god Neptune, and a boar. As the reader may recall, a boar is a wild male pig. Therefore, one of the important symbols of this legion was the pig.Now imagine this: Christ comes to the Decapolis and casts demons (who called themselves Legion) out of two demon possessed men into a herd of 2000 swine, an animal used as a symbol of a mighty Roman legion. The legion of demon-possessed pigs now runs off the cliff and into the nearby sea, drowning themselves. Think about the message Jesus Christ is sending? Is it any wonder that the people in the nearby city and countryside became so afraid that they begged Jesus to leave? They feared Roman retaliation! This healing that Jesus did wasn’t just a moral or spiritual statement. Oh, it was that. St. John Chrysostom (AD 349-407, Archbishop of Constantinople) writes the following in his 28th homily on the Gospel of St. Matthew:“Now, should anyone say, And wherefore did Christ fulfill the devils' request, suffering them to depart into the herd of swine? this would be our reply, that He did so, not as yielding to them, but as providing for many objects thereby. One, to teach them that are delivered from those wicked tyrants, how great the malice of their insidious enemies: another, that all might learn, how not even against swine are they bold, except He allow them; a third, that they would have treated those men more grievously than the swine, unless even in their calamity they had enjoyed much of God's providential care. For that they hate us more than the brutes is surely evident to every man. So then they that spared not the swine, but in one moment of time cast them all down the precipice, much more would they have done so to the men whom they possessed, leading them towards the desert, and carrying them away, unless even in their very tyranny the guardian care of God had abounded, to curb and check the excess of their violence. Whence it is manifest that there is no one, who does not enjoy the benefit of God's providence. And if not all alike, nor after one manner, this is itself a very great instance of providence; in that according to each man's profit, the work also of providence is displayed.”Notice above what Saint Chrysostom says, “To teach them that are delivered from those wicked tyrants, how great the malice of their insidious enemies.” Who were the wicked tyrants but the Roman Emperor and Senators, and their military ambassadors, the Tenth Legion of the Strait? Christ was clearly saying that He will give the victory over demonically inspired Roman paganism, and that happened as Christianity spread throughout the Roman world, such that at the Edictum Mediolanense (Edict of Milan) in AD 313 Emperor Constantine I granted toleration and legalization of Christianity, an event which led to the inevitable demise of the Greek and Roman pantheon.All of the people who saw this healing that Jesus did, who witnessed the pigs drowning themselves in the sea, knew exactly the kind of political statement that Jesus was making. So yes, Jesus DOES make political statements and invariable we either don’t like them or are filled by fear from them. True, Jesus is neither Republican nor Democrat, but He hates infanticide and sexual immorality, and He will do the same today as He did to the demons possessing the Gadarene men. He is God, and God is the same yesterday, today and forever, unchanging. He always does the right thing in the right way at the right time. So buckle up, folks. Swine are about to rush headlong into the sea.