Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Surprising Miracles

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 01.31.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Friends, today’s Gospel shows Jesus driving the unclean spirit from the Gerasene demoniac. What we see here on vivid display is Jesus the miracle worker.

Modern thinkers tend to be wary of this dimension. For instance, Thomas Jefferson took a straight razor to the pages of the Gospels and cut out everything that smacked of the supernatural—miracles, exorcisms, and so on. The problem, of course, is that he had to make an absolute mess of Mark’s Gospel, which is positively chock-a-block with such things.

Jefferson’s contemporary, the great modern philosopher David Hume, wrote a powerfully influential text against miracles. He claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible. Accounts of them, he concluded, were the result of the foggy or wishful thinking of primitive people.

But though God typically lets the universe run according to its natural rhythms and patterns, what is to prevent God from shaping it and influencing it occasionally in remarkable ways in order to signal his purpose and presence?

[MurphsLaw]

+++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,
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.+++

[Qui is]

“He claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible.”

And thus the reason such things are called miracles. A miracle is the manifestation of something that violates the laws of nature or physics. It is the manifestation of the impossible.

The problem with accepting or believing in miracles in today’s world, as well as throughout recorded history, arw all the hucksters and charlatans.

[Qui is]

“He claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible.”

And thus the reason such things are called miracles. A miracle is the manifestation of something that violates the laws of nature or physics. It is the manifestation of the impossible.

The problem with accepting or believing in miracles in today’s world, as well as throughout recorded history, arw all the hucksters and charlatans.

[ebb tide]

Bergoglio thinks otherwise:

Pope Francis: ‘If We Look for Miracles, We Will Not Find Jesus’

[MurphsLaw]

I remember when I first learned of Jefferson's biblical editing- it was a disappointment... here a founding father rejecting parts of the bible.

Later, I would learn that some miracles are of a very natural nature...like Christ's initial Cana wedding miracle do something nature has done forever...turning water into wine...
Though in nature rather, converting rain water, through the vine, into grapes... what Christ did was to speed up that process by compressing the process in a super- natural way

I feel TJ had an issue with anything supernatural, beyond scientific observation...