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Feb 1 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, 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.
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“Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord has done for you.” What would you tell them ?
Tomorrow, February 2, is Groundhog Day, one of my favorite days of the year. It gives me real hope and provides a scientific basis for my greatest physical and psychological need this time of year, that winter will soon end…or not. If not soon, then at least an ending point is pointed out. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
February 2nd is the day that the Groundhog after a long winter sleep comes out of his burrow to look for his shadow. If he sees it, bad news. That is an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and he returns to his warm burrow. If the day is cloudy and, therefore the groundhog shadowless, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.
This tradition comes to us from the Germans in Pennsylvania, and stems from beliefs associated with Candlemas Day, February 2nd’s feast of the purification in the church calendar, that was for centuries the day the clergy blessed candles and distributed them to the people.
The Roman legions, during their incursions into northern Europe and Germany brought this tradition to the Germanic tribes, who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an animal, such as a badger or bear, would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather, which they called "Second Winter."
Pennsylvania's Germans found lots of groundhogs in the state. They determined that the groundhog, somewhat resembling the European badger, was a most intelligent and sensible animal and so believed that if the sun did appear on February 2nd, so wise an animal as the groundhog seeing its shadow would hurry back into its underground home for another six weeks of winter.
There are several groundhog traditions in this country. The best known looks to Punxsutawney Phil of Punxsutawney, PA. There is also General Beauregard Lee of Lillburn, Georgia, for those who have not forgotten the recent unpleasantness between the states, and if you’ve ever been to Georgia, you know they haven’t forgotten.
Perhaps you have seen the movie Groundhog Day, which takes place in Punxsutawney PA. If not, I highly recommend it.
The protagonist is an unpleasant and egotistical news broadcaster, who suffers an accidental death in the midst of the Groundhog Day festivities. He enters a time warp in which he lives this same day over and over again, meeting the same people, confronting the same choices until he gets it right, until he learns to act right.
Life is like that somewhat. There are lessons that we must learn, and if we don’t life throws them at us again and again. You may know this already from your studies…. Math, Latin etc. and from Sports.
If you haven’t learned to add, subtract, multiply and divide well and accurately, you can forget about algebra, never mind geometry, statistics and calculus.
If you can’t decline a noun of the first declension or conjugate do dare dedi datus, if you don’t know the vocabulary, you can forget about progressing higher than an F in Latin.
If you want to run a marathon and finish, you’d better be able to make it around the track a few times. And if you want to block a 200 lb opponent on the line of scrimmage, you’d better have spent some time in the weight room.
Spiritual life is like that too. There are lessons we must learn in order to move forward, lessons we must learn …for love….for eternal life.
There are two big lessons, which are tough to master. And the movie Groundhog Day illustrates them well. I know I’m still learning and working on them.
One lesson is to live in the present moment. I so hate Winter that I instinctively shut down and try to ignore it. From November until April I dream of and long for Spring. Yet every year I have lived has had it’s Winter. I’m know in my winter misery I have let lots of opportune moments pass by.
Dreaming and planning has its place in life, but dreaming & planning doesn’t take the place of the present moment and the reality that confronts us NOW. The present is what God gives us; the present is what we have, all we have. The past is irretrievable. The future is not promised nor guaranteed. The present is your choice…right now…Right now you can listen to me and hopefully learn something or you can tune me out and zone out.
Where we are now. The people around us now. What we can do now. What we can learn and put to use now. All this is critical to our happiness and salvation.
Those people who asked Jesus…when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned…were surprised by His answer. In all those fleeting passing present moments when you were surprised by hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned strangers and friends. That’s when.
Those were their opportunities when they either stopped what they were doing to help, or turned their backs.
The second lesson we have a hard time learning is related. It is about the self…the self, my own self to me, your own self to you… is either an impediment and obstacle to our taking advantage of the present moment and opportunities we have …or it is the vehicle in which our soul cruises through the turbulence of life by acting lovingly and selflessly like God.
If we don’t get that one, we’ll never be lucky in love.
The American philosopher William James said a century ago “Everything added to the self is a burden and a pride.”
We work so hard to build up ourselves, to protect ourselves. It’s easy to make a fantasy game of our life, a role playing game in which we are the most important player, destined to be the all powerful wizard who defeats any opposing player with secret weapons and stratagems.
Everything we add to our self, that we come to take pride in, is a burden to be carried and protected and maintained. We can add so much to our self that we are crushed. My reputation, my power, my expertise, my idea, my opinion, my job, my money, my my my my. My prides will exhaust and kill me.
That’s hard to hear when you are investing so much time and energy and money in an education. But it’s true.
I assure you, when you come to die, as you and I will…you will not look back and think the high point of your life was your 4.33 GPA at Priory. It won’t be the scholarship or the PhD you earned or the business you started or anything like that. The high point of your life, what will have given your life meaning, will be what you loved…truly loved. As we heard yesterday, love never fails.
And to truly love you have to give it all away, give yourself away.
Not in a planned gift, but in all the moments which strung together form the long strand of your life.
No man has greater love than this…than to lay down his life for his friends. And there are lots of ways to lay down one’s life, moment by moment, day by day.
This moment …today…is the day before Groundhog Day. Tomorrow is not promised. I checked the weather; it’s pretty iffy …cold and cloudy in Punxsutawney PA and in Lilburn, Georgia.
There’s a pretty good chance Phil and General Lee won’t see their shadows at 7:27 AM – dawn - tomorrow. I can only hope, but if I’ve learned any lessons then I know it doesn’t matter. I have today to love …to love God , to love you, and to enjoy God’s love for me expressed in so many ways, in my friends and family, in my life in this place. And if God wills, I’ll have tomorrow too…shadow or not.
Jesus told the man possessed whom He cured, and He tells you and me….
“Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord has done for you.”
What will you tell them ?
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