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Reflection on the Gospel – Wednesday, July 2, 2025
This is one of those Gospel passages that’s almost impossible to comment on. A normal situation turns into a strange and hard-to-understand story. Jesus and His disciples arrive at a town in the region of the Gentiles, called Gerasa, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. We’re not told much about the customs or religion of its people, but it’s clear they were not Jewish.
If the people of Nazareth had a hard time recognizing the carpenter’s son as a prophet—much less the Messiah—to the point of trying to throw Him off a cliff, the Gerasenes were at least a bit more polite: amazed and afraid of His power, they simply asked Him to leave. Only one of the two possessed men healed by Jesus wants to follow Him, but Jesus does not allow it. Instead, He sends him to share the Good News with others.
Jesus kept what we call the “Messianic secret” for a time. He only openly declared Himself the Messiah as the Passion drew near.
But the ones who did recognize Him as the “Holy One of God” early on were—the demons. These spirits had deeply tormented two men and terrified the whole region.
Exorcists say that in cases of possession (real or imagined), one should never speak with demons. But Jesus does talk to them, and He grants their strange request: to enter a large herd of pigs and throw themselves into the sea. The Gospel doesn’t explain why—or for what purpose. And we’re left with that mystery.
Maybe the message is this: demons do exist. They hate Christ and they hate humanity. And we must protect ourselves from their traps. Evil is real and powerful—but powerless before God, who is absolute goodness. Our shield against the devil’s attacks is Jesus Christ, who was tempted and defeated him.
When we feel temptation—and suspect something dark behind it—we should follow the advice of those who know this spiritual battle well: simple and powerful things like making the Sign of the Cross, and calling on Mary, whose presence is unbearable to Satan. And above all, as Jesus Himself taught us in the Our Father, we should pray: “Deliver us from evil.”