FOUNDATIONS AND STRUCTURES


WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Amos 5:14-15,21-24; Ps 50:7-13,16-17; Mt 8:28-34

The Structures of Sin

Structures arise in a person or a city from operations or activities of the person or city. A city or part of a city may be unhabitable for some people due to the type of lifestyle and activities prevalent in such a city or a particular part of the city. The lifestyle and characterising activities depend on the existence of suitable or enabling structures, including social, political, economic, and sometimes cultural structures. It is the same within an individual person. The structures within each of us support a particular lifestyle. Since a human person cannot be without a controlling spirit or master, the inner structure corresponds to the spirit each person serves. These structures make it impossible for us to serve two masters, according to Jesus Christ. We are either the slaves of God, having divine structures within us, or slaves of demons, with demonic or sinful structures within us. What we predominantly fill our minds and hearts with forms these structures within us. So, our Lord says: “The one you obey is your master.” The enslavement starts with the introduction of the structures. When the structures are well established, reinforced, and operational, the master progressively dwells in the slave or city. The enslavement may be of an individual person or a community of persons.

The story of the Gadarene demoniacs in the Gospel illustrates such a situation. The two demoniacs tell the story of the region, for they housed the demons operating through the existing structures in the region or city. “When Jesus reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side of the lake, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs—creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way.” It would seem that the two possessed individuals were isolated from the city and its activities. That was not the case; they were rather repositories for the demons controlling the city due to the operative structures in the city. The state of the two demoniacs is a result of the lifestyle of the people in the city. The demons of hell are attracted or beckoned by the daily choices of human persons. When human desires and doings create a conducive habit for the demons, they come and live among them. One or two people would be hijacked to serve as dwellings for demons. Only the power of God can dislodge them when they inhabit a person or a city. The coming of the Son of Man brought light to the dark country of the Gadarenes. But the people were not ready to receive the light of God, for they preferred darkness to light.

The two demoniacs were the scapegoats of the dark desires and actions of the region. Many people suffer as scapegoats. But in his infinite justice, God will always compensate them for what they suffer for the sins of the people. The justice of God is such that while the dark desires of some people attract the demons and their evil structures on us, the unjust suffering and pains that many people bear innocently attract the mercy of God and light to the people. The Son of Man came to help the possessed and the people. But the people were not ready to welcome God. “At this, the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him, they implored him to leave the neighbourhood. The Eternal Word comes not only to cast out the forces of darkness, but also to destroy their operative structures within us and without. But we must individually and collectively desire and seek his presence. Hence, Amos the prophet, says to us: “Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and that the Lord, God of Hosts, may really be with you as you claim he is.” To have God establish his presence among us, we must hate evil and love good. Our proclamation of the Gospel fosters the love of good and hatred of evil.

Let us pray: O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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