Announce to Them All

Announce to Them All

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Piety

The world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in deserts and on mountains, in caves and in crevices in the earth. Yet all these, though approved because of their faith, did not receive what had been promised. God had foreseen something better for us so that without us they should not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:38-40

Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:25

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. Mark 5:18-20

Study

Legion was clearly the subject of a miracle.  Unlike the leper who was cured, Legion was not sent to the temple for ritual purification.  Afterward, he simply wanted to stay with Jesus.  That was not to be.  Jesus wanted, needed and instructed people who benefit from his saving mercy to be a witness to that work in the world. He was commissioned to do a Cursillo witness talk.

The same was true with the prophets.  “…[W]ithout us they should not be made perfect.”  The letter to Hebrews details the many trials and tribulations of the prophets. However, as the notes in the NABRE explain, these heroes of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) obtained their recompense only after the saving work of Christ had been accomplished. Thus. they already enjoy what Christians who are still struggling do not yet possess in its fullness. They need us to hear their story to bring it to fullness!  The same is true about Legion and the witnesses to his miraculous healing.

Jesus did not accept the man’s request to remain with him as a disciple.  Instead, Jesus invited him to announce to his own people what the Lord had done for him, i.e., proclaim the gospel message to his pagan family. He was commissioned to tell his own story. Jesus was taking a risk by turning him into a prophet in his own native place. (We all saw what happened to Jesus in Sunday’s reading!)

Action

"Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."

If that was the Lord’s command to you, what story would you tell? Who would listen to it?

This is a good time to consider our Cursillo friends who are in team formation and will be telling their stories this spring.  Send Palanca to Men’s 139^th team via Brad Frison frisonatverizon.net or via mail to 2128 Kings Garden Way, Falls Church, VA 22043.

Send Palanca to the Women’s 152^nd Cursillo via lcdalton85atgmail.com, or mailed to Leanne Dalton, 13 Halifax Court, Stafford, VA 22554.

They are in formation to be prophets in their own native place.