Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
When Jesus encounters the man with an unclean demon in the Gospel, he shows himself to be the Divine Physician. Expelling the demon, Jesus used his power and authority to cast out the evil spirit in such a way that it “came out of [the man] without doing any harm.” At last, by the presence of his word, Jesus brings healing and peaceful quiet to this afflicted man.
Even if we do not find ourselves possessed by a demon in the same way, the Lord desires to show himself as that Divine Physician to us as well. If there are any areas in our lives afflicted by sin or where darkness seems to have control over us, Jesus wishes to encounter us there, heal the torments that beset us, and restore peaceful quiet to our hearts. For us, this process may be more gradual than the event recounted in the Gospel. But, if only we are open to God’s grace, the Lord will surely bring about this transformation, restoring us to salvation and the fulness of life.
Today we also remember the life and holiness of Saint Gregory the Great, who first as a Benedictine monk and then as Pope desired to imitate Christ’s office of Divine Physician through his own vocation from God. Living in the tumultuous time of the sixth century, Saint Gregory as Pope attended to the needs of his time by instituting reform to attend to the welfare of the poor in Rome, to revise the sacred liturgy and the Mass, to send out missionaries for the sake of the Gospel, and to promote the better formation and education of priests and pastors who would care for the people of God. In all of these ways, by his love of God and neighbor, Pope Saint Gregory the Great sought to bring the healing of Christ to the Church and the people of his day. And so, spurred on by his witness of holiness and the miracle recounted in the Gospel today, let us pray how the Lord might be inviting us to bring the healing of Christ to our world so deeply in need.