In today’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a man possessed to the point of torture by an unclean spirit. The man spends his time among the tombs, wailing and crying, hurting himself without anyone being able to restrain him. It’s a frightful scene that most certainly had the neighboring villagers living in fear. And so their reaction to the work of Jesus seems confusing. Seeing the formerly possessed man now “clothed and in his right mind,” they are seized with fear and what’s more, they beg Jesus to leave! Shouldn’t they be rejoicing for the man and begging Jesus to stay?
The story reveals a peculiar aspect of human behavior: our resistance to positive change. It’s easy to become accustomed to the current state of things in our lives, no matter how bad they might be– a grudge, a broken heart, a relationship gone sour, an unhealthy attachment to someone or something, frightful things that we have somehow claimed as our own and have come to define us, things we couldn’t imagine ourselves without.
On the journey of conversion, Christ challenges each aspect of our lives in order to make it holy. Do we welcome the change or are we like the villagers, resistant and fearful?