Homily

In the Fourth Century there was a growing desire in the Church to celebrate the specific events in the life of Christ and some of the saints as well. In the Western Church, December 25th became the date to celebrate the feast of Christ's birth, three days after the winter solstice, as the amount of daylight begins to grow longer each day after that point. It is Christ who brings light to the world. Thursday, we celebrated the birth of John the Baptist, three days after the summer solstice, as the point where now the amount of time between sunrise and sunset grows shorter every day, the opposite of Christmas. Why this day? Because the Fathers wanted to express what John the Baptist says about Jesus in John 3:30—"He must increase; I must decrease."

Now on to the Gospel for today: In reacting to this casting out of the demons from these two men, their dramatic overtaking of a herd of pigs that then run off a cliff to be drowned in the sea, in reaction to this all the people of the town came out to meet Jesus, which was not surprising. What is surprising is that they beg Him to leave their area. Beg Him to leave! Why? Well, probably because they are afraid of Him. Why afraid? He liberated these two men from the power of Satan, these two men who had terrorized many people over the years, these men are now back to their old selves and the threat is gone. Good for them but the rest of the town wants Jesus gone.

There's no way to know for sure why they were afraid of Jesus, but I suggest that one major reason is that Jesus shook them up. You would think people would be grateful for having witnessed this great display of power over the forces of evil that they would want to find out more about this Jesus, but that is not what happens. I believe they wanted everything to go back to what was normal, predictable, regular. They wanted life to be regular according to the patterns they were used to, before this Jesus came and turned it all upside down. Who knows what He might do next? He's gotta go!

It is much neater, safer, and certainly a whole lot more comfortable if Jesus just goes away. We don't care Who He is, we don't care why He is here, we don't care where He comes from or where He is going, as long as He gets going away from here.

In a certain way, I believe over the past decades there has been a similar attitude that has gradually overcome more and more people in the industrialized and technologically developed Western world. There are more and more people who don't want Jesus in their neighborhood, and certainly not in their personal lives. What are the reasons for the different reactions to Jesus?

There are some people who know Jesus and they reject Him because they are evil. Simple as that! If you are evil, why would you love or want someone who casts out evil? Then there are some people who misunderstand Jesus and His teaching, and there are surely many, many ways in which people can misunderstand Jesus—each one incorrect, but each one seems to be a reason to not believe in Him.

Then there are people who are simply ignorant about Jesus. They know little or nothing about Him and it is surprising how many people today fall into this category. So of course, they cannot honestly reject Him. They don't even know Him.

Perhaps the biggest reason people reject Jesus, or neglect Jesus, is because they want to control their own lives without any outside interference, especially if that interference calls for holiness, moral living, loving enemies, denying one's self, taking up a cross, learning to control passions rather than giving in to them. If that external interference calls for obedience, trust and hope in a glory that is beyond this mortal world, then maybe it is easier just to go your own way. It brings to mind a famous song sung by Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s version of Pinnochio:

Now that was written in 1940, but it expresses many of the actual sentiments and beliefs that real people hold today, even if they are not wishing upon a star. I love the sweet sentimentality of that song, and yet, though I hate to say it, Jiminy Cricket was a liar. His nose should have grown longer than Pinocchio’s. Saint Omelyan Kovch, a Ukrainian Catholic priest martyr who we remember today, was arrested by the Gestapo for hiding Jews and providing false baptism certificates for them. He died in a concentration camp. He wrote his relatives saying, “Yesterday they killed 50 people here. I am the only priest in this camp. If I were not here, who would help them to endure these sufferings? I thank God for his kindness to me.” Needless to say, St. Omelyan did not wish upon a star.

As science and technology have created such astounding changes in the course of our lives during the past few centuries, especially even the past 50 years, it is always the temptation to believe that we can, in effect, create a paradise on earth through the stuff we have, and the stuff we are sure is coming to us just around the corner, and through the technology we can use to alter our world. Even if it's not paradise exactly, it's paradise enough for me, because in my personal philosophy I believe that I have a kind of god-like control over my life. No need for a Savior. In fact, those who do believe in a Savior are frequently getting in the way of what I want to do, and how I want to live. "We need to get Jesus out of our neighborhood!" is a slogan they would endorse.

Finally, there are those who want Jesus to be with them, but they too are often tempted by the desire to be in control of their own lives. They struggle sometimes to find a place for Christ, to hear His voice, to trust in Him, to speak with Him, to be guided by Him, to obey and believe in Him, to find joy and satisfaction in Him rather than in their own attempts to make life satisfying and complete. Jesus often increases for them on Sunday morning and decreases for them as the week moves along. Sometimes they even hide the fact they follow Him, lest others disapprove.

Perhaps we belong, in some degree, to this last group. It's true we face an increasing opposition to Christ in our neighborhood, and we are tempted to live sometimes as though He is not with us as well. The only solution is to do exactly the opposite as the Gerasene crowd did: let us beg Christ to be with us, stay with us, enlighten us, strengthen us, favor us, heal us, and help us to understand better how much He loves us. Let us not be complacent—but insistent and persistent, "O Lord come among us and never leave us alone."