Monday, week 4 in Ordinary Time

Brothers,
on the power of faith,
    what more can I say?
I would not have time to tell the story
of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
David, Samuel, and the prophets.
    By their faith,
they conquered kingdoms,
administered justice,
obtained the fulfillment of certain promises.
They shut the mouths of lions,
    quenched raging fire,
escaped the edge of the sword,
recovered strength after illness,
displayed courage in battle,
put foreign armies to flight.
    Women whose sons had died
received them back raised to life.
But others were tortured
and refused to accept release offered to them,
because they wanted to obtain a better resurrection.
    Others underwent the ordeal of mocking and scourging,
of chains and imprisonment.
    They were stoned, sawn in two,
murdered by the sword.
They wandered about,
clothed in sheepskins or in goatskins,
destitute, harassed and ill-treated
    – but in fact, it was the world that was not worthy of them!
They lived as wanderers in deserts and mountains,
in caves and crevices of the earth.
    And although by their faith,
they all received God’s approval,
they did not obtain the fulfillment of the promise.
    Indeed, God had foreseen something better for us,
and he did not want to bring them to perfection without us.

       – The word of the Lord.

How great is your goodness!
You reserve it for those who fear you.
You lavish it, before the eyes of the world,
on those who take refuge in you.

You hide them in the shelter of your presence,
far from the plots of men.
You keep them safe in your dwelling,
far from malicious tongues.

Blessed be the Lord:
his love has worked wonders for me!

And I, in my alarm, said:
“I am banished from your sight.”
Yet you heard my plea
when I cried out to you.

Love the Lord, all you his faithful ones:
the Lord watches over those who are his;
but he repays with strictness
anyone who acts in pride.

At that time,
Jesus and his disciples
    arrived on the other shore,
on the other side of the Sea of Galilee,
in the country of the Gerasenes.
    As Jesus was getting out of the boat,
immediately a man possessed by an unclean spirit
came out from the tombs to meet him;
    he lived among the tombs
and no one could restrain him any longer,
even with a chain;
    indeed they had often bound him
with shackles and chains,
but he would break the chains and shatter the shackles,
and no one could master him.
    Constantly, night and day,
he was among the tombs and on the hills,
crying out and hurting himself with stones.
    Seeing Jesus from afar,
he ran and fell at his feet
            and cried out in a loud voice:
“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I beg you by God,
do not torment me!”
    For Jesus had been saying to him:
“Unclean spirit, come out of this man!”
    And he asked him:
“What is your name?”
The man replied:
“My name is Legion,
for we are many.”
    And they pleaded earnestly with Jesus
not to send them out of the territory.
    Now there was a large herd of pigs there, feeding on the hillside.
    So the unclean spirits begged Jesus:
“Send us into those pigs,
and let us go into them.”
    He allowed them.
So they came out of the man and entered the pigs.
From the cliff, the herd rushed headlong into the sea—
there were about two thousand pigs—
and they drowned in the sea.
    Those tending them ran off,
and reported this in the city and in the countryside,
and people came to see what had happened.
    They came to Jesus, and saw the possessed man
sitting, clothed, and in his right mind,
the very one who had had the legion,
and they were afraid.
    Those who had witnessed all this told them what had happened to the possessed man
and what had happened to the pigs.
    Then they began to plead with Jesus
to leave their district.
    As Jesus was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed begged to be with him.
    But he did not permit it,
but said to him:
“Go home to your own people,
and tell them everything that the Lord
has done for you in his mercy.”
    So the man went away,
and began to proclaim in the region of the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him,
and everyone was amazed.

       – Let us acclaim the word of God.