Quiet! Come out of him!

Gospel of the Day ( Mark 1:21-28 )

Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.

The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!"

The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

***

Reflections:

"Quiet! Come out of him!"

«Jesus rebuked the demon and said: 'Quiet! Come out of this man.» The Truth has no need of the Liar's testimony... «I do not need to be recognized by the one I have determined to cast out. Quiet! May my glory burst forth from your silence. I don't want it to be your voice that offers me praise but your torment, for your expulsion is my triumph... Quiet, and come out of this man!» It is as though he were saying: «Come out of my house; what do you think you are doing under my roof? I am wanting to enter so, quiet!, and come out of this man – of man, that being endowed with reason. Leave this dwelling made ready for my benefit. The Lord wants his house; come out of this man»...

See how precious man's soul is. This runs counter to those who think that we humans and the animals are endowed with exactly the same soul and are moved by the same spirit. On another occasion the demon was cast out of a single man and was sent into two thousand pigs (Mt 8,32); the spirit that is precious is opposed to the spirit that is base; one is saved, the other lost. «Come out of this man, get into those pigs; go where you will, go to hell. Get out of man, namely what belongs to me; I won't let you possess man since it would injure me if you were to settle in him in my stead. I assumed a human body, I dwell in man: that flesh you possess forms part of my flesh. Come out of man.»