The commentary on the Gospel of February 1, 2021 by Don Luigi Maria Epicoco

“As Jesus got out of the boat, a man possessed by an unclean spirit came to meet him from the tombs.

The reaction that this possessed person has in front of Jesus really makes us reflect a lot. Evil should flee before Him, so why is it running towards Him instead? The attraction that Jesus exercises is so great that not even evil is immune from it. Jesus is truly the answer to all that is created, that even evil cannot fail to recognize in him the true fulfillment of all things, the truest response to all existence, the profound meaning of all life. Evil is never atheist, it is always a believer. Belief is evidence for him. His problem is to make room for this evidence to the point of transforming its choices and actions. Evil knows, and precisely starting from what it knows it makes a choice contrary to God. But moving away from God also means experiencing the hell of moving away from love. Far from God we can no longer even love each other. And the Gospel describes this situation of estrangement as a form of masochism towards oneself:

“Continuously, night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he shouted and beat himself with stones”.

One always needs to be freed from such evils. None of us, unless we suffer from some pathology, can really lucidly choose to get hurt, not to love each other. Those who experience this would like to be freed from it, even if they do not know how and with what force. It is the devil himself who suggests the answer:

“Shouting in a loud voice he said:« What have you in common with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you, in the name of God, do not torment me! ». In fact, he said to him: «Get out, unclean spirit, from this man!» ”.

Jesus can free us from what torments us. Faith is doing all that we can humanly do to help us, and then letting what we are no longer able to do can be accomplished by God's grace.

"They saw the demoniac sitting, dressed and sane."