Virtual Retreat

Daily scriptural reflections by Fr. Rory Pitstick, SSL from Immaculate Heart Retreat Center in Spokane, WA
Also available via daily email

Monday, July 03, 2006

Daily Retreat 07/05/06

2006 Jul 5 Wed: Ordinary Weekday/ Anthony Mary Zaccaria, p, rf
Am 5: 14-15. 21-24/ Ps 49(50): 7. 8-9. 10-11. 12-13. 16bc-17/ Mt 8: 28-34
 
From today’s readings:  “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts, be with you as you claim....  Why do you recite My statutes, and profess My covenant with your mouth, though you hate discipline and cast My words behind you?...  When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met Him.”
 
Pigs or Persons?
 
When Jesus exorcized the demoniacs in the territory of the Gadarenes, the demons, at their own request, were sent into a herd of pigs, which were then driven to drowning by the mad monsters.  But when the townsmen heard of the miracle, they frowned on it as a catastrophe, for the Gospel mentions that they came out en masse to beg Jesus to leave their district.
 
Presumably some of the townsfolk had stock in the herd, and so, they were naturally upset at their loss.  However, any herd of pigs, which Jews consider “unclean,” would have been an unwelcome aberration even in the Hebrew hinterlands.  One would have expected the majority of the people to have appreciated Jesus both for curing the demoniacs and for getting rid of the pigs!
 
But rather than recognizing any good that Jesus had done, the residents resented Jesus, for whatever reasons, and so begged Him to leave their district (and more importantly, to leave them alone!).  The same annoyed attitude can certainly be found in our own times, probably even in our own communities, and possibly even in our own hearts.  For, in order to fully welcome Jesus, one must evict evil entirely - and that always entails a cost!  For some people, the attachment and concern for the unclean things of life outweighs the grace that Jesus brings, so they tragically continue to beg Him to just leave them alone.