Luke, VIII, 19-39. The true family of Christ. The possessed of Gerasa.

"My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and fulfill it."

 As befits a master, He offers in His person an example to others, and commanding Himself, He executes His commandments Himself. To prescribe to the others that, if one does not leave one's father and one's mother, one is not worthy of the Son of God (see Matt, X, 37, Lk, XIV, 26), He was the first subject to this sentence; not that it condemns the pious respect due to a mother, because from Him comes this precept:

"Whoever does not honor his father, his mother, shall be punished with death" (Ex., XX, 12, Deut., XXVII, 16), but because he knows how to devote himself to the mysteries of his Father more than to feelings towards his Mother. Parents are not unfairly dismissed; but it is taught that the bonds of souls are more sacred than those of bodies. They should not have stood outside, those who sought to see Christ; for "the Word is near, on your lips and in your heart" (Deut., XXX, 14, Rom., X, 8). Inside, then, is the Word, within the light. So he said, "Come near to the Lord, and be enlightened" (Ps. 33, 6). For if, to be outside, the parents themselves are not recognized (and perhaps are not recognized to be an example to us), how will we be recognized if we stand outside? And let no one believe in offended piety, from the moment that the commandment of the Law is fulfilled; if indeed "the man will leave his father and his mother and will attach himself to his wife, and they will be two in the same flesh" (Gen., II, 24), this mystery is exactly observed in Christ and the Church (Ephesians, V, 31-32). From then on he could not give his parents preference over his own body. So is not it? according to the pitfalls that some heretics tend? that here He denies His Mother: He recognized Him even from the top of the Cross (Jn, XIX, 26); but before the bonds of the flesh He passes the rule of the celestial commandments. Moreover, it is not out of place to hear that in the person of his parents He shows how to the Jews, from whom Christ descends according to the flesh, we must prefer the Church, which believed. Knowing then that he came to earth in view of the mystery of God and to gather the Church, He leaves his parents there and gets into a boat. For no one could have crossed this world without Christ, since those to whom Christ is present are often troubled by the tempest of the temptations of the age. And if he does so with the Apostles, it is to point out to you that no one can leave the career of this life without temptation: for temptation is the exercise of faith. We are therefore subject to the storms of the evil spirit; but, like the sailors who watch, wake up the pilot. But they too are usually in danger; which driver do we send to? to that one, of course, who is not a slave to the winds, but their command; to him, of whom it is written, "And rising up, he called out the wind. "

What to say, getting up? he was resting; but he rested by his sleeping body, while being occupied with the mystery of divinity: for where is Wisdom, where is the Word, nothing is done without a word, nothing without prudence. You read above that he spent the night praying: how would he have slept during the storm? But this reflects the security of his power: all were afraid, he alone rested without fear. It does not share (only) our nature, not sharing the danger. Even if his body is asleep, his deity acts, faith acts; As he says, "Men of little faith, why did you doubt" (Matt, VIII, 26: 14, 31)? And they deserve the reproach, for being afraid in the presence of Christ, while, clinging to Him, we can not perish. So he strengthened the faith, brought calm. He ordered the wind to fall: not to the aquilon nor to the south wind, but to the wind to which the angel Michael says, in the Epistle of Jude: "The Lord command you" (Jud. 9)! This is why St. Matthew says again: "He commanded the winds and the sea" (VIII, 26). And please God to condescend to repress in us his violent squalls, so that the calm returned to our agitated life removes the fear of shipwreck! And although he does not sleep the sleep of his body, let us take care that by the sleep of our body He is not for us asleep and at rest.

It is enough to have touched what we indicated above.

Now, since we know from the book according to Matthew that in the land of the Gerasenians two men possessed by the demons have presented themselves to Christ, while here S. Luke portrays one, and naked (is naked whoever has lost the clothing of his nature and his virtue), I consider that this apparent disagreement of the evangelists as to the number must not be neglected, but that the reason must be sought. In fact, even if the number does not match, there is agreement as to the mystery.

This man possessed of the demon is the figure of the people of the Gentiles, covered with vices, naked for error, uncovered for the crime. The other two are also of the Gentile people: for, Noah having begotten three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the only family of Shem was taken by God as his possession; from the other two came the peoples of the various nations: one was cursed for not having covered the nakedness of his father, the other blessed, because in hindsight, so as not to see the shame of his father, the His piety led him to cover this father, and to spare himself the curse of his brother's race.

"For a long time, it is said, he was agitated." Obviously, since from the deluge at the coming of the Lord, he was tormented, breaking in his furious dementia the bonds of nature. And it is not without reason that, as St. Matthew tells us, they lived in tombs; for such souls seem to dwell as tombs and sepulchres: what are the bodies of the unbelievers, if not kinds of sepulchres for the dead, where the words of God do not dwell? He was therefore driven to deserted places, that is to say sterile in virtue of the soul, fugitive from the Law, separated from the Prophets, excluded from grace. For he did not suffer from a single demon, but from the onslaught of a whole legion: this, in the sight of the Lord, knowing and foreseeing that at the time of the Lord's coming it would be repressed in the abysses, began to implore permission to break into swine. And first we must notice the clemency of the Lord: He does not condemn anyone first, but everyone is the architect of his own punishment. Demons are not hunted in pigs, but of themselves ask for them, because they could not sustain the brilliancy of the heavenly light: likewise those with eyes hurt can not bear the radiance of the sun, but choose darkness and flee clarity. Let the demons flee from the brightness of the eternal light, and fear before the time the torments they deserve: not that they may guess in advance what will come, but they remember what was prophesied; for Zechariah said, "And on that day the Lord will blot out the names of idols from the earth, and there shall be no more remembrance of them, and I will consume the unclean spirit on earth" (Zech., XIII, 2) . We are thus taught that they will not remain forever, so that their malfeasance may not be endless. Now, fearing this punishment, they say, "You have come to destroy us. But as they desire to exist still, moving away from men for whom they know they have to suffer punishment, they ask to be sent in swine. Who are these pigs? would it not be by chance those who are said, "Do not deliver the holy things to dogs, and do not cast pearls on the swine, lest they tread them under foot" (Matt. 6), those, I mean, who, in the manner of filthy animals, deprived of speech and reason, defile by the muddy deeds of their lives the adornment of natural virtues. Their passion leads them to the precipices, for they are not held back by the consideration of any reward, but, pushed up and down on the slope of the evil, they are stifled in the waters amid the fluctuations of this world, and perish. as strangled, obstructed breathing channels; for those whom the ardor and the current of pleasure take here and there to chance, there can be no vivifying relationship with the Spirit. So we see that man is the artisan of his own torment. For if it had not lived in the manner of a hog, the devil would not have received power over him; or if he had received it, it would have been not to destroy him, but to test him. Perhaps, too, that being unable to pervert the good, after the coming of the Lord, he is now seeking the loss not of all men, but inconstant ones: likewise the robber does not trouble armed men, but disarmed, and overwhelmed the weak with ill-treatment, knowing well that he would be crushed by the strong, or condemned by the powerful. But, will anyone say, why does God allow this to the devil? "In order," I say, "that the good are tested, the perverse punished: such is the penalty of sin. Read also how God sends fever, and trembling, and evil spirits, and blindness, and all the plagues, according to the merits of sinners (Deut., XXVIII, 59, PS 3l, 10).

 But let's go back to our reading. "Seeing, it is said, the herdsmen fled. It is not, in fact, the professors of philosophy or the leaders of the Synagogue who can offer any remedy to the people in perdition. Only Christ removes the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to endure the cure. Moreover, he does not deign to cure by force, and hastens to abandon the sick to whom he sees that his presence is dependent: such as the population of Gerasa, who, coming out of the city, where the figure of the Synagogue seems to reside, asked him to withdraw "because they were terrified". It is because the infirm soul can not bear the Word of God, can not bear the weight of wisdom: it bends and collapses. So he does not bother them any longer; but "He went up, and returned": yes, He went up from above to the heights, from the Synagogue to the Church. "He came back by the lake," as he says, or, according to Matthew, "by the arm of the sea" (Matt., IX, 1): "between us and them there is a great arm of the sea" (cf Lk, XVI, 26); no one can pass from the Church to the Synagogue without risking his salvation; and even he who wishes to pass from the synagogue to the church must carry his cross, in order to escape danger. But why is the delivered man not welcomed, but advised to return to his dwelling, if not to avoid an occasion of vain glory, and for his example to show to the infidels how this dwelling is the natural dwelling place? Therefore, having obtained remedy and healing, he is commanded to return from tombs and sepulchres to this spiritual dwelling, so that the temple of God becomes the sepulcher of the soul.

Luke, VIII, 40-56. Hemorrhoids and the daughter of Jairus.

"And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, who was the first in the synagogue, and fell at the feet of Jesus, praying to him to enter his house, because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and was dying. "

Christ, we said, had left the Synagogue in the person of the Gerasenians; and he, whom his men had not received (Jn, I, 11), we have received; we received the one we expected. To us, who waited for him, He did not fail; and to others, if he is prayed to, he does not dislike to return. For this man, head of the Synagogue, who had an only daughter, implored the healing of the dying Synagogue, which was about to die because it was abandoned by Christ. What, in our opinion, is this head of the Synagogue? is not it the law? for the sake of it the Lord did not completely abandon the Synagogue, but reserved a saving remedy for those who would believe.

While the word of God was hastening to the daughter of this chief to save the children of Israel, the holy Church gathered from among the Gentiles, who was decaying in falling into the lowest faults, stole by her faith the salvation prepared for others. From the moral point of view we feel that we have sufficiently explained this passage: so let us not return to what has been said; but we like to touch the mystery in a few words. Is not that how things went? The Word of God, coming for the Jews, was attracted to the Gentiles, and those who did not believe in Him by the Law, were the first to believe by grace. For, like the one who had spent all her money on doctors, all the nations had lost all her natural gifts, wasted her life's wealth. Holy, discreet, religious, quick to believe, restrained by modesty - because there is modesty and faith in recognizing her infirmity, not to despair of forgiveness - discretion therefore made her touch the fringe, faith brought her closer , religion to believe, wisdom to know that it was healed. Likewise the holy people of the Gentiles who believed in God blushed from his sin to leave him, brought his faith to believe, offered his devotion to pray, wore wisdom to feel his healing too, became emboldened to acknowledge that he had stolen what was not his.

Why is Christ touched from behind? Could it be because it is written, "You will walk after the Lord your God" (Deut., XIII, 4)? What does it mean also that the chief's daughter died at the age of twelve, and that this woman suffered from a loss of blood for twelve years? is not it to suggest that. as long as the Synagogue was well, the Church suffered? the weakening of one is the strength of the other, because "their fault brings the salvation of the Gentiles" (Rom., XI, 11), and the end of one is the beginning of the other: beginning not as to nature, but as to salvation, for "the blindness of a part of Israel has occurred until all nations have entered" (Rom. xi. 25). The Synagogue is therefore older than the Church, not in time, but from the point of view of health: for as long as the former believed, this one did not believe and languished, prey to the various diseases of the soul and body, without remedy that could heal it. She learned the sickness of the people of the Jews, she began to hope for the remedy which would save her; she recognized that the time had come when the doctor was coming from heaven; she rose to go to meet the Word; she saw that he was pressed by the crowd: they do not believe who is urging him, those who believe touch him. It is faith that touches Christ, faith that sees it; the body does not touch it, the eyes do not seize it: for it is not seeing what to see without seeing, and it is not to hear that not to understand what one hears, nor to touch if one does not touch with faith. So, to bring about the faith of the one who touched him, He said, "Someone touched me, for I know that a virtue has come out of me. Obvious proof that wisdom is not enclosed, the divinity constricted, in the capacities of human nature and in the enclosure of the body: the eternal power is not captive, is not retained in the narrowness of the body but goes beyond the boundaries of our mediocrity. It is not a human help that frees the people from the Gentiles; but it is a divine blessing that this union of nations, even with fresh faith, inclines eternal mercy. If we now consider the size of our faith and understand the greatness of the Son of God, we see that in relation to Him we touch only the fringe; the top of his garment, we can not reach him. If, therefore, we want to be healed ourselves, let us touch by faith the fringe of Christ. He does not ignore all those who touch his bangs, who touch him when He is turned: for God does not need eyes to see, He has no bodily sense, but possesses in Him the knowledge of All things. Happy, then, who touch at least the end of the Word, for who can seize it entirely?

But to come back to the one who is still sick, and lest, if we long delay the entry of Christ, we attribute his death to us rather than his delay "servants, it is said, came say to the notable: do not bother him, your daughter is dead. And first consider this: Before resurrecting a dead person, to produce faith He began by healing hemorrhoids. And to teach you that the flow of blood has stopped for our instruction, at the moment when He goes to one, the other is healed. In the same way, we celebrate the historical resurrection during the Passion of the Lord, to believe that of eternity. In the same way, Mary gives birth to a child by a sterile woman, to make one believe that a virgin will conceive; as well she learned that Elizabeth would give birth, and did not doubt her own motherhood.

"The servants," said he, "came to say to the notable: Do not bother him. They do not yet have faith in the resurrection that Jesus foretold in the Law (Ps 15, 10?), Fulfilled in the Gospel. And when He came to the house, He took with Him but few witnesses of the resurrection that was about to occur: for it was not the great number who at first believed in the resurrection. As well, when the Lord says, "the child is not dead, but asleep," "they mocked Him," he says. Because those who do not believe make fun. Let them mourn their dead, those who believe them dead: when one has faith in the resurrection, it is not death that one sees, but rest. And what Matthew says (IX, 23) is not irrelevant: that there were in the house of the notable flute players and a tumultuous crowd: it seems that we were followed the use of the ancients in bringing flute players to ignite and excite the lamentations, either because the Synagogue, through the hymns of the Law and the letter, did not know how to gather the joy of the Spirit . So taking the child's hand, Jesus healed her and gave her food. It is a testimony of life, so that one does not believe in a ghost, but in a reality. Blessed is he whose wisdom holds hands! May God also keep our actions, let justice hold my hand, let the Word of God hold it, bring me into its retreat, turn away the spirit of error, bring back save! He commands me to eat: for the heavenly bread is the Word of God. So this wisdom which covered the holy altars with the food of the divine body and blood, said, "Come eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have prepared for you" (Prov., IX, 5). What is the cause of such a difference? higher up, it is in public that the son of the widow is resurrected; here we discard the surplus of the witnesses. But I believe that there is again the goodness of the Lord: the widow, the mother of an only son, could not wait; so, in order not to feel it any more, have we been eager. There is also a disposition of wisdom: for the son of the widow, it is the Church who will immediately believe; with the daughter of the head of the Synagogue, it is the Jews who will believe, but very little in relation to the multitude.