Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The fulcrum of the prayer
They came to the other side he 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 …. 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!”) …. 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 they were seized with fear. Mk 5,1-15
More than two thousand years ago, after discovering the principle of the lever, Archimedes showed all his amazement, exclaiming, “Give me a lever and I will move the world”. It is an exclamation which has spanned the centuries and it bounced on all the benches of the school. There is no student who has not heard it. Leaving the field of physics, the phrase “Give me a lever and I will move the world” announces that nothing is impossible in principle, but it becomes so in the practice of the facts, because natural and human limitations are faced. It is impossible to build a lever and a fulcrum so long and so strong to be able to lift a weight as large as that of the world. The principle of the leverage well applies also to our spiritual dynamics. It explains how important are our faith and our holiness, which form the fulcrum on which the lever of the Lord rests to remove the problems which we present in the requests for intercession and in the prayers of exorcism. This is what happens in the passage of the today’s gospel: the faith and the sanctity of Jesus allow the expulsion of the demons from that man. The power of the Lord is beyond question, the weak point are always the weakness of our faith and our sin. Being faced with this page of the gospel we can only kneel, like Peter after the miraculous catch of fish, and also say: “Lord, have mercy on me because I am a sinner”. Increase, Lord, our faith and help us in our journey of holiness!