We hear quite an amazing
story in the Gospel today, of a man who is living amongst the tombs, tormenting
himself and eluding any restraints that are put on him. The man is identified in the Gospel as having
been possessed by demons. We think of
the demons that possess us in our own lives.
If we let our demons take control of us, we may figuratively become like
the man possessed by the demons in the Gospel, harming ourselves and behaving
without any constraint or control. Our
faith is the one thing that can help us successfully confront our demons, just
as Jesus confronted these demons in the Gospel head-on.
And while the man cured on
the demons wants to remain with Jesus, Jesus sends him off as a witness to
declare this Good News to the world.
Witnessing for the faith in different ways is what we are called to
do. Pope Benedict XVI calls us to a new
evangelization in which we are to witness to a world that has turned its back
on the message of the Gospel. That is
what the Year of Faith is all about – renewing our own faith and using our
renewed faith to re-evangelize the world.
I have been so enlivened myself by the wonderful energy I feel here at
St James parish. We are already
evangelizing in so many different ways here, and I think that our upcoming parish
mission about the Second Vatican Council and all that it has to teach us can
really help us in identifying different evangelization opportunities for us in
our world.
No comments:
Post a Comment