"No one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him....Night and day among the tombs, and on the mountains, he was always howling and bruising himself with stones."
Jesus sees deeply into the man's tormented soul, sees more than madness, sees that he is possessed. Jesus says to him "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
Now the man's deeply divided soul reveals itself: he flings himself down before Jesus, his body language begging for mercy and healing, while his voice shouts "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me."
Once again, when the disciples have not yet fathomed Jesus' true identity, a supernatural being already knows the Messianic Mystery: Jesus is Son of the Most High God - and the demon fears his power.
Calmly Jesus asks him, "What is your name?" This question has great significance, Fr. James Martin, S.J. observes in "Jesus A Pilgrimage":
"In the ancient Near East, names held great significance and power. In the Book of Genesis, God renames Abram as Abraham, signifying a divinely ordained change in identity. Jesus will rename Simon as Peter, a sign of his new life and mission. Moreover, knowing a person's name was believed to give someone power over that person.
"This is one reason that, when Moses asks to know God's Name, the answer is 'I am who am.' In other words, "That is my business." Moses has no right to access the power of knowing God's name. Thus, when Jesus asks the demon's name. he poses a direct threat. 'What is your name?' means "Let me have power over you.'"
Jesus receives a chilling answer:
"My name is Legion; for we are many."
Is "legion" a colloquial expression for "many"? Or is the demon using this word to avoid giving his real name? Or is "legion" a reference to the Roman legions who possess Palestine? The language here is a mystery.
The demons beg Jesus not to send them out of the country, but to send them into a herd of pigs grazing nearby, - another sign that this is pagan territory, because Jews did not raise pigs, ritually impure "food." Jesus agrees. The demon(s) enter the swine, who proceed to rush over a nearby cliff and drown. Much to the consternation of the swineherds, who with other citizens, plead with Jesus and the disciples to leave the area. The swineherds are undoubtedly angry that they have lost their pigs. The others might be terrified by Jesus' power.
But all get to see the man who has been made new:"They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion, and they were afraid....As he(Jesus) was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him 'Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you."
Jesus waits to clothe our distressed emotional and spiritual nakedness in the mantle of his mercy. Jesus waits to restore us to the family and friends who may silently despair about ever seeing us whole and at peace again.
Addictions, obsessions, anxieties - so many demons can assail us! Fr. Martin, when he was a young seminarian, began to explore his inner self, especially when he was asked to go somewhere he'd never been before and to do something he'd never done before: go to Kingston, Jamaica, and work among the poor. Facing this scary, unfamiliar territory and ministry, he wrote in his journal:
" I still have many demons lurking in me. Despite God's best efforts, fear, anxiety, and worry still hide within me, and make their appearance at very inopportune times....Unfortunately, all of them are very real. Fear of getting sick, anxiety of what would happen if I did get sick, in general worrying."
Fr. George, another Jesuit who was prone to depression as he recuperated from using alcohol to numb his feelings, thought of this Scripture story as he wrote
"Jesus invited me to look into the tombs all around me, the cemetery of bad memories that I chose to dwell in most times. And what was there? Nothing, just dust and dry bones - the fears and pains I am most afraid of are dead things. They cannot hurt me any more. They are dead and I am alive."
Today Fr. George ministers to men in prison, knowing that their prison cells are like dark tombs, and witnessing to God's power to free us from ourselves, our own self-imposed darkness and inner division.
Do we want to have God heal and change our divided hearts and souls, or do we want to stay broken and in hiding? God waits to give us real freedom, what Alcoholics Anonymous calls "The Sunlight of the Spirit."