1 February 2027 · Latin Rite
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“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.”” Mark 5:19
Hebrews closes its great roll call of faith almost out of breath: “time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.” Some, through faith, “shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword”. Others “were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection”; they were stoned, sawn in two, homeless, “destitute, persecuted, tormented… of whom the world was not worthy.” Faith does not always look like victory. Some escaped the sword and some died by it, and both were faithful. The chapter ends with a surprise: they “did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.” The saints of the Old Covenant wait to be completed together with us in Christ.
The Gospel takes us across the lake into pagan country, to a man no one could bind. He lived among the tombs, “always howling and bruising himself with stones.” When Jesus asks his name, the answer is terrible: “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Evil divides and multiplies; it tears a person into pieces. Jesus speaks one word and the man is found “sitting there, clothed and in his right mind.” Strangely, the townspeople are afraid and beg Jesus to leave; they prefer their pigs to their healed neighbour. The healed man wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus sends him home: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” He becomes the first missionary to the Decapolis.
Theme: “Tell them how much the Lord has done for you.”
The faithful who suffered, the man made whole, and the mission that begins at home.
“Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD.” Psalm 31:24
“of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” Hebrews 11:38
Apply: Thank God by name for one person whose faith carried yours.
“he brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder.” Psalm 107:14
“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.” Mark 5:15
Apply: Bring what divides you inside to Jesus in confession.
“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.” Psalm 66:16
“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.”” Mark 5:19
Apply: Tell one family member what God has done for you.
Faith is faithful whether it escapes the sword or not.
Jesus makes us whole and sends us home as witnesses.
Take-home resolution: Share one story of God's mercy at the family table this week.
Dear friends, Hebrews closes its list of the heroes of faith: time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets (Hebrews 11:32). Some shut the mouths of lions; others were tortured, stoned and killed by the sword.
Faith does not always look like victory. Some escaped and some died, and all were faithful: people of whom the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11:38). And they wait to be made perfect together with us.
In the Gospel Jesus meets a man whom no chain could hold, living among the tombs. His name is Legion, for we are many (Mark 5:9). Evil tears a person into pieces. One word of Jesus, and the man sits clothed and in his right mind (Mark 5:15).
He wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus says: go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you (Mark 5:19). Our first mission field is our own home. Let us tell our families of his mercy. Amen.
Children, Jesus made a very sick man well, and then said: go home and tell your family what God has done for you! Tonight, tell your family one good thing God did for you today.
Lord Jesus, Son of the Most High God, you freed the man whom no chain could hold and sent him home to tell of your mercy. Free us from all that divides and torments us, and make us witnesses at home of what you have done for us. Amen.
Both readings today are full of chains. Hebrews finishes its roll of the faithful with people in prison, under the sword and in hiding, whom no chain could part from God. Mark shows a man whom no chain could hold, living among the tombs, until Jesus steps out of a boat and the man is sitting there clothed and in his right mind. The key words are faith, witness and mercy. The response to Psalm 31 sums up the day: “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.”
Setting.
Hebrews 11 is the great roll of faith, from Abel onward. In these last verses the author says that time would fail him, and he stops telling stories one by one. He only hints at them, and his first readers would have known them from the Scriptures: Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah from the Book of Judges, David and Samuel, Daniel among the lions, and the mothers who received their children back through Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.” (11:35)
The two sentences stand side by side on purpose. Some were given their dead back for a time. Others could have bought their lives and refused. Faith does not always look like a rescue.
“They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword;” (11:37)
The Old Testament tells of the stoning of Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20–21). The Scriptures do not tell of anyone being sawn in two; a later Jewish tradition says that this was the death of the prophet Isaiah under King Manasseh.
“of whom the world was not worthy.” (11:38)
The usual way of judging is turned upside down. The world thought these people unfit to live among them. Scripture says that the world was not fit to have them.
“since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.” (11:40)
A remarkable ending. The heroes of Israel wait for us, and we need them. God's people are one family, and all reach the goal together in Christ.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism turns to this “cloud of witnesses” when it says that the believer never walks alone in faith (CCC 165), and it calls martyrdom the supreme witness to the truth of the faith (CCC 2473). The Second Vatican Council recalls the ancient saying that the universal Church will gather all the just “from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect” (Lumen Gentium 2). Verse 40 says the same in its own way.
Setting.
Saturday's Gospel ended with the calming of the storm on the way across the lake (4:35–41). Now the boat lands on the eastern side, in the region of the Decapolis, a league of Greek-speaking cities. The people here are largely Gentile, which is why there can be a herd of swine (compare Leviticus 11:7). The manuscripts differ over the place name: “Gerasenes” in Mark, “Gadarenes” in Matthew 8:28, and “Gergesenes” in some copies. Gerasa itself lay well inland, so the exact site cannot be fixed. Mark's interest lies elsewhere.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” (5:5)
Mark piles up the details of a life destroyed: cut off from people, living with the dead, and hurting himself. Evil is pictured here as what it does: it isolates and it wounds.
“Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”” (5:9)
The man has lost even his name. When asked who he is, he can only say what possesses him.
““Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.”” (5:19)
Elsewhere Mark's Jesus often asks for silence (1:44; 5:43). Here, in Gentile country, he sends the man out to speak.
“And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him;” (5:20)
Notice the shift: Jesus said “the Lord”, and the man says “Jesus”. He has understood. The first preacher to the cities of the Decapolis is a man who was not allowed to get into the boat.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus' exorcisms release people from the domination of demons and anticipate his great victory over “the ruler of this world” (CCC 550). The Church has received from him the power and office of exorcizing, and a simple form of exorcism is part of every Baptism. She also teaches that illness, especially psychological illness, is a very different matter, and that treating it is the concern of medical science (CCC 1673).
Was it fair that the herd of swine was destroyed?
Mark does not explain this. It is usual to note two things. The destruction shows what the unclean spirits wanted to do to the man, and what they do to anything they enter. And the story measures one man against two thousand animals and finds him worth more. The sad part comes after: the people see the man healed and ask Jesus to go.