My house is messier these days than I would like it to be. In addition to visiting grandchildren who create chaos in their wake, there are now two cats who live here. Big enough now to go wherever they please, they scatter cat toys across the floor (sometimes in shreds), knock books off of tables, and generally disturb order.
Of course, like grandchildren, they are also delightful companions, gloriously entertaining, and sweet, warm, cuddling critters that soften the cold bleakness of winter and COVID isolation.
Messy Scriptures
I find today’s Scriptures hard. They are complicated and messy—like my house with cats and kids. In the reading from Hebrews, the author summarizes Jewish history by saying in effect, “Eventful as it was with centuries of triumph and persecution, its purpose was to bring us to our point in time.” From the long view of history, that makes sense. But, it was messy for those who sacrificed. “Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others endured mockery, scourging, even changes and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point; they went about in skins of sheep or goats, needy, afflicted, tormented.” I wonder how they felt about their place in God’s story.
The Man in the Tombs
Then there is today’s Gospel. Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and arrives in a non-Jewish area, the land of the Gerasenes. Since the people there were not Jewish, they ate pork; hence, the large herd of swine.
Remembering that Mark’s Gospel is based on Peter’s experience of Jesus and that the turning point event was Peter saying, “You are the Christ,” I have tried entering this Gospel through Peter’s eyes. What did Peter see? How did this event form Peter’s faith?
It helps to put this event into a timeline. The event of Jesus encountering an “unclean spirit” in Sunday’s Gospel is told in Chapter 1 of Mark. This story begins Chapter 5. A lot has happened. Jesus has finished collecting his core twelve disciples. There have been many cures and casting outs of demons. Jesus has begun to argue with the Pharisees. He has told the parables of sowers and seeds and explained the meanings to his disciples. Perhaps most important, on the way across the sea, Jesus calmed the waves in a storm. (Mark 4: 35-41).
Now, as soon as Jesus and disciples come ashore, they are approached by a man with an “unclean spirit.” The Greek word for unclean here means “disordered—messy—not as it should be.” References say “unclean spirit” means a demon, but the Greek word for evil is not used here. I take that to mean that Peter did not see this man as “evil,” but rather as disordered—as not as he should be.
Nonetheless, this man is very much a mess. He lives naked among ancient tombs. He shrieks and screams day and night. Local efforts to contain him have failed. His disorder within has created disorder in the whole community.
As was true in Sunday’s Gospel, the unclean spirit recognizes Jesus and objects when Jesus has compassion on the man and calls the spirit out of him. “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” Adjure means to earnestly urge—to beg.
Interestingly, Jesus then asks the unclean spirit his name. Even today, when people do deliverance, they ask for a spirit’s name. It helps them know what to do with it. The reply was, “Legion.” Legion was a term within the Roman army structure that meant 3000 to 6000 soldiers. So, Jesus must have learned this was a very large unclean spirit. Perhaps he could not be cast out without some large place to go.
There was a herd of swine—about as many pigs as there were people in a Roman legion. Jesus could save the man by ordering the spirit into the swine. The spirit, self-destructive as had been seen in the man, sent the swine over a cliff into the sea.
Peter’s Perspective and Our 21st Century Eyes
Our 21st century eyes see that and think, “What an injustice! Those swine were someone’s property, the swineherds’ source of income.”
I’ve been stuck on that all week. But, at least for today, I’m looking at this incident from a slightly different angle. As Peter, I would not be disturbed at the destruction of a herd of swine because swine were also unclean. In fact, some of the persecution described in Hebrews today happened because the Jews refused to eat these disordered animals. Peter would not have been disturbed. He might have thought, “That was a great solution!” It might have built his faith, though it leads me to question.
My healing prayer background leads me beyond Peter’s eyes. The unclean spirit, once it left the man, had to go somewhere. Better to go into a herd of swine than into the people of the area. God the Father could take care of the needs of swineherds and owner in a different way. The important thing was that Jesus took care of this one man whose life had been awful. He delivered him from his legion of disorder. He shepherded him with love.
Messiness of Removing the Unclean Today
I recently heard a speaker say, “Abortion is the core sacrament of secularism. Without abortion, the whole structure of secularism falls.” I have thought much about that. There is a great chunk of truth in that statement. It points to the battle between good and evil within the abortion issue. I have spent much of my life within the pro-life movement, but I have spent it with the women considering abortion or who have had abortions. I know that the word “unclean” described their experience of disorder within. I saw in them more disorder than evil.
Because of the messiness of the issue in individual lives, abortion is a messy, unclean issue in our society, too, as well as an evil. While I work and pray to change the law to stop legalized abortion, there would still be the issue: where is a herd of swine to contain the disorder? For this disorder, too, is Legion. It cannot be contained by changing the law. Society will have to be shepherded to a new place.
In the Catholic press I read about the anticipation and practical complicated issues of people on both sides of the US-Mexican border. The issues of immigration are legion and messy, and our refusal to seek real solutions has been invaded by underlying issues of racial prejudice. Where is a herd of swine to contain this disorder?
Prayer from these Scriptures has been hard–messy–but hopefully not disordered. Much to think and pray about.
Prayer
Shepherd us, O Lord. You commanded the unclean spirit out of a man to save him. Each and every person—born and unborn, on one side of the border or another—each and every person–is valuable to you. Give our culture herds of swine so the disorders do not spread even more among us. Give us clarity of vision and prudence of action. Don’t let us say with the Gerasenes, “leave us.” Stay with us, Lord. Lead us to say with Peter, “You are the Christ. We are sinful men and women, but we will follow you.”
