Daily Gospel Reflection for Monday, February 3, 2014

Today's Gospel: Mark 5: 1 - 20

Jesus and His disciples go to the region of Gerasa where they meet a man who is possessed by a legion of unclean spirits. The spirits beg Jesus to have pity on them and not drive them away from the territory. Jesus sends them into a herd of swine that immediately rush headlong down a cliff into the sea.

When the people of Gerasa hear what Jesus has done, they beg Him to leave the area. The healed man wants to follow Him but Jesus tells him to “go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”

The Gerasenes were pagan. That’s why there were swine roaming around. Jews didn’t raise or eat swine. Although they wondered who this Man was who could heal the demoniac, they were not willing to leave their life of darkness and sin. Unlike the healed man who wanted to follow Jesus, they did not want the Light of Christ. They were more concerned with the loss of their material possessions, the herd of swine, and they rejected the life He promised.

Ponder:

We are not possessed in the same way as the Gerasenet man but like him, we are in need of conversion, healing, and the mercy of Jesus. What sins and material possessions keep you chained in darkness so that you resist the call to conversion and fail to fully follow Jesus?

Pray:

Dear Lord, have pity on me and heal me from the darkness of my sins so that, like the Gerasene man, I may testify to all that You have done for me.

Copyright 2014 Terry McDermott