Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 30, 2023
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”
He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.
If we encountered Jesus the way the people in the gospels did, do you think we’d recognize him?
To be honest, even as a cradle Catholic who has spent ten years teaching Scripture to high school students and considers faith to be the cornerstone of my life, I sometimes wonder if I would get it right. And looking at the stories surrounding today’s gospel, I’m pretty sure that’s the warning given.
For much of this gospel, Jesus heals people and orders them to keep it quiet afterward. Many scholars suggest that this is because most Jews were hoping for a particular type of messiah, a revolutionary who would overthrow the Romans, and that’s not who Jesus was.
It seems Jesus is worried about people misunderstanding him, and even his disciples seem to prove him right. Just a few verses ago, Jesus calmed the storm, and his disciples said to one another, “who is this…?” (Mk 4:41).
But then, in today’s gospel, Jesus heals a man and instructs him to go to his family and announce the good news. Why now? The opening verse tells us that we are now in Gentile territory, a place without the expectation of a messiah. These people wouldn’t have pictures in their heads of who Jesus should be, so perhaps they are more likely to receive Jesus for who he really is.
So, where do I fall? Who do I resemble? How often do I let my image of who I think God should be close my eyes to who God actually is?
Lord God, help us approach you each day with new eyes, not clouded by our assumptions, open to receive whatever you want to give us.
Prayer
Our days, O God, are often spent in the midst of a world that is filled with the mystery of human weakness. We experience bewilderment and disorder as we attempt to decipher the contradictions of mind and spirit. Many of our brothers and sisters often give up hope of rediscovering peace of mind and right judgment. With the help of your divine grace, O Lord, help us to understand that our daily life is not to be understood as conflict and confusion, but rather as an opportunity to grow in tranquility and holiness. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Margaret Ball was a wealthy laywoman in sixteenth-century Dublin who was arrested during a persecution of Catholics by her own son, who sent her to prison in Dublin Castle, where she eventually died.
Margaret Ball was born in 1515 in County Meath, which neighbors Dublin County, in Ireland’s eastern province of Leinster. Her family—the Berminghams—were originally from England, as their name suggests. They emigrated to Ireland and became landed Irish gentry when her father purchased a farm. The Berminghams were fairly politically active and staunch supporters of the Catholic cause as a Protestant government began to form.
In 1531, when she was sixteen, Margaret married Bartholomew Ball, a city councilman in Dublin. The Balls were a wealthy Dublin family and Bartholomew was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1553.
Margaret and Bartholomew had ten children, five of whom survived into adulthood, and lived comfortably in their fine home in the city. Margaret oversaw the education of not only her own children but of many other children throughout the city, holding classes for them in her home.
In 1558, when Elizabeth I ascended the throne of her two kingdoms of England and Ireland, she reversed her sister Mary I’s declaration of Catholicism as the state religion. Her Religious Settlement of 1558 declared the throne the head of the Church in England and decreed that all Elizabeth’s subjects attend worship at a Church of England, using the Book of Common Prayer, each Sunday. Obviously, then, attending a Catholic Mass was now illegal, which led to the arrest and persecution of Catholic clergy, religious sisters and brothers and lay Catholics.
During this tumultuous time, Margaret and Bartholomew provided a safe haven in Dublin for many priests.
Not all members of the Ball family were still committed to their Catholic faith. Margaret’s eldest son, Walter, for instance, embraced Elizabeth I's reversal. In 1580, he took over as Lord Mayor of Dublin and promptly arrested his sixty-five-year-old mother and had her carried to the dungeons beneath Dublin Castle. The rest of the family demanded Margaret’s release, but Walter stubbornly refused, unless Margaret took the Oath of Supremacy which recognized Elizabeth I as head of the Church.
Walter’s younger brother, Nicholas, brought his mother food and clothing and took care of her while she was in prison. Nicholas became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1582 after his brother was promoted to Commissioner of Ecclesiastical Causes. Nicholas could still not free his mother, despite his new power, as Walter had royal oversight over religious matters and would not allow him to release Margaret.
Margaret died in 1584, after enduring the rank air and damp cold of Dublin prisons with a strong spirit. All her property after her death still went to Walter, as she never once changed the terms of her will.
Margaret was beatified in September 1992 by Pope John Paul II, in a group of seventeen Irish martyrs.
The image above is a photo by Connell McCabe of a statue of Margaret and Blessed Francis Taylor (a martyr beatified by John Paul II in the same group as Margaret) that stands outside the St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.
Blessed Margaret Ball, loving mother and brave martyr for the Catholic faith—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Margaret Ball is available for use under a Creative Commons license. Last accessed November 15, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
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