Gospel Mk 5:1-20
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”
He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus, and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.
In this instructive passage, we learn about demons. To Catholic Fundamentalism, they are the corrupting viruses with the mission of causing human programs to crash.
This particular man had been living among the dead, like all who do not have life in them. His operating system became so corrupted that his errors could not be controlled, even by physical restraints.
No human being could control him, even with chains and shackles. He prowled the tombs and vacant land, howling in frustration at his inability to control the demons within his operating system.
He saw Jesus, Who was so spiritually powerful that the man could deny his viruses’ urge to destruction and ran to Jesus, falling to the ground before Him. Jesus had been saying, “Corrupting viruses, I am erasing you from this human’s program.”
The viruses controlled the man’s mind and body, and had him ask, “What are you going to do with me, Living Program of The Loving Programmer? I beg You not to erase us!”
Jesus asked the viruses collective name. “We are legion, there are many of us (in the man).” Their collective voice pleaded not to send them away (to the pain of Hell).
A large herd of swine was feeding on the nearby hillside, so the demons begged, “Send us into those pigs. Let us enter their minds.” Jesus let them go there, and the herd of two thousand pigs raced down the steep hill into the sea and drowned.
When the herders told people in and around town what had happened, they dropped what they were doing and raced to see for themselves if the incredible thing they’d heard could be true.
Near Jesus, they saw the formerly possessed man, sitting quietly, absorbing His Programming Power. They didn’t ask Him to erase their own demons/viruses from their own programs. Instead, they asked Him to go away. Why? Probably because they, like all the unsaved, had grown too fond of their own demons to want to get rid of them.
It is part of The Program that Jesus does not help those who don’t want Him to, so He got in the boat to leave. The man whose demons He’d erased asked to accompany Him.
“No, your job is to stay here, right where you are, and tell people what God, in His pity for you, has done for you.” We should do the same thing as we find help from The Loving Programmer.
Obediently, the man began to tell people his story, explaining that He had been possessed by an astonishing 2,000 demons, all of whom had been erased from His program and sent into a herd of pigs that drowned themselves.
In every age, all who heard this have been amazed. We might hope that some of them turned to Jesus so they could have the corrupting viruses in them expelled from their own human programs.
But, most people chose to keep their viruses and remain corrupted.
Thanks for reading about How Many Demons/Viruses Do We Have In Our Own Programs.
