The Supernatural

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Entrance Antiphon Ps 106 (105):47 Save us, O Lord our God! And gather us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, and make it our glory to praise you.

Collect Grant us, Lord our God, that we may honour you with all our mind, and love everyone in truth of heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13; Psalm 3:2-7; Mark 5:1-20

Jesus and his disciples crossed the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. As he stepped out of the boat, immediately there came to him from tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He had been dwelling in the tombs and no one could now restrain him, not even with chains. Having been often bound with fetters and chains he had burst the chains and broken the fetters in pieces. No one could tame him. He was always day and night among the tombs in the mountains crying and cutting himself with stones. Seeing Jesus afar off he ran and reverenced him. Crying out with a loud voice he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus the Son of the most high God? I adjure you by God that you not torment me.” For he said to him, “Go out of the man, you unclean spirit.” And he asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He besought him repeatedly that he would not drive him away out of the country. There was there near the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. The spirits besought him saying, “Send us into the swine that we may enter them.” Jesus immediately gave them leave. The unclean spirits going out entered the swine, and the two thousand or so herd with great violence was swept headlong into the sea and there were drowned. Those who looked after them fled and told everything in the city and in the fields. The inhabitants went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been possessed sitting, clothed, and mentally recovered, they were afraid. Those who had witnessed everything recounted it to all, explaining what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. At that, they began asking him to leave their district. When he went into the boat, the one who had been possessed began to implore Jesus that he might remain with him. But Jesus would not permit it, and told him, “Go to your house and to your friends, and tell them how great have been the things the Lord has done for you and his mercy towards you.” He went his way and began to broadcast in the Decapolis the great things Jesus had done for him. Everyone marveled. (Mark 5:1-20)

The Supernatural Let us notice one feature of the culture of the people of the Gerasenes, which is the setting of our Gospel passage today. There is among them no scepticism as to the reality of the supernatural. It was as plain as the day that the demonic was a reality and that, in the man Jesus, they had someone in whom abided the supernatural. But now, what of our own day? It is, of course, a very mixed situation but one very dominant feature is that of scepticism in respect not only to religion, but to the supernatural itself. Ever since the sixteenth century and even more clearly since the Enlightenment that followed it, this visible world of ours has been progressively equated with reality. It is equated with it in the sense that reality is restricted to the empirical. That which is real is that which can be experienced and tested with the senses. It is deemed that there can be no certain reality other than the empirical. This assumption has led in turn to a profound scepticism as to the testimony of the Scriptures and in particular the Gospels, precisely because — paradoxically — so much of it provides empirical evidence of the supernatural. For the modern sceptic the Gospels cannot be historical because in them the supernatural is presented as tangible. Our Lord cured the sick and the empirical evidence was there. It showed not just the fact of the supernatural but the proof of his claims as to the divinity of his person. He raised the dead and performed many other miracles, and here in our Gospel passage today he casts out powerful demons. Our Gospel passage today is one of the many that radically challenge the assumptions of modern secular man. Let modern man feel encouraged to take up the Gospel and, despite his instinctive dislike for the possibility of an active supernatural world, let him open his mind and heart to the unseen God present visibly in Christ, to Satan his great but helpless antagonist, and to the implications of this for human life. What does it all mean for modern man? One thing it means is that the supernatural is very real.

So then, what are the great supernatural facts that our Gospel scene today reminds us of? Our visible world has within its theatre active realities that are not of it. Firstly, man finds himself burdened with the presence of the demonic. The devil has entered our scene and has done his very dirty work. The man with the unclean spirit in our Gospel passage may be taken as an extreme example of what happens when Satan takes up his abode, and to a greater or lesser extent this is the situation in our world. Our beautiful world has been profoundly marred by the visit of Satan who has come to stay. That is the first thing that the country of the Gerasenes — the context of our Lord’s activity here — reminds us of. The devil is there, and as St Peter writes in his Letter, he roams around like a roaring lion. But secondly, another and far more powerful Presence has come. God has visited his people and Satan is no match for him. What is the reaction of the demons to the sudden arrival of Christ? They fear him, instinctively honour him, plead with him so as to ward off his power, and ask for consideration. There is no doubt about Christ’s effortless dominance over the demonic. “Seeing Jesus afar off, he ran and reverenced him. And crying with a loud voice, he said: What have I to do with you, Jesus the Son of the most high God? I adjure you by God that you torment me not. For he said to him: Go out of the man, you unclean spirit.” (Mark 5:1‑20) The upshot is that the devils are cast out of the unfortunate man. The supernatural realm is very real indeed and Christ is the consoling force for good against whom no evil power has a chance. But look what then happens! Despite the good he has done the inhabitants want him to leave. It is an instance of St John’s remark during the course of the Prologue of his Gospel, that he came unto his own and his own did not receive him. The Gerasenes ask him to go.

Every day the Christian has a choice to make and to live by. There are two great Standards aloft and fluttering in the wind. The first — first perhaps to be noticed in its effects — is that of Satan. There is another, far greater and truly consoling. It is the Standard of Christ. Let us choose his Standard, and resolve to fight for it. Let us remember that our Lord said that the one who refuses to gather with him will be scattered. Our Gospel scene today gives proof of this.

(E.J.Tyler)

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