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A man from the tombs who had an
unclean spirit met Jesus. The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. ... 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.
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Johnny
Cash always wore black. When asked about it one time, his
response was that maybe he was going to a funeral, namely his own.
Johnny and June Carter Cash's early lives were difficult ones.
There were some happy moments, but most of their time before
their final thirty years of recording and accomplishing great things
together, their lives were close to total chaos. Both were
divorced, Johnny's life became centered around pills and booze, both
felt the emptiness of living. They could have given up,
recognized that they were "no good," and allowed their failures to
control them. But they did not. They realized that things were
not the way they should have been, they realized their weaknesses and
that they had made mistakes. They accepted where they were, began
again, and went on to live a wonderful life together.
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We
mess up. We hurt people. As we look back at our lives, we
may often be ashamed of what we did and why we did it. We may
have been responsible for bad things, and they were truly our fault; we
cannot blame any one else. What
can be done about it? Do we give up, say we are evil and bad,
turning to total despair?
The Christian would say: "Absolutely not!" No matter how wrong we may have been, no matter what we have done wrong, we can admit our guilt and go on to accomplish good and even great things in life. In terms of the man in Mark's Gospel, even though we may be possessed by many devils, even if we have spent a life hurting ourselves, there is the possibility of a "turn around." The one thing that the possessed man was able to do, even though he may have been totally confused as he did it, was to go to Jesus. He recognized in some way his need for this miracle-worker of Galilee, and he "ran" to him, Mark the evangelist reports. Running to Jesus was the beginning of salvation for that man, even though there were legions of devils that occupied him. Although Johnny and June Carter Cash are not portrayed in the movie "Walk the Line" as guided by specifically Christian thought, much of the closing part of their lives was truly Christian in character. The fact is that the teachings of Jesus can easily be a beginning of the salvation we all desperately want and need. Even as we realize our negative tendencies in life, we can turn to the teachings of the God-man Jesus, and totally turn our lives around. |
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THOUGHT
Why do people often give in to despair?
What can be done about it?
PRAYER Good
and gracious God, once we recognize that we have made
mistakes, even hurting ourselves and others, our human natures want
to just "give up." Help us to study the importance of your Son and his
teachings so that we can always turn ourselves around and accomplish
good and great things. Be with us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |