23rd Sunday after Pentecost; Our Holy Father Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesarea (270-75); Passing into Eternal Life (1947) of Blessed Josaphat Kotsylovsky, Bishop of Peremyshl and Martyr
Nativity Fast.
Read
Ephesians 2:4-10; Luke 8:26-39
Have you ever been called upon to serve jury duty? Maybe the person in front of you in traffic was involved in an accident and asked for your contact information for insurance purposes. We know that being witnesses, seeing things with our own eyes, gives us a special insight, and one which people seek.
This is the claim which Christians make about our Lord, not that we have read about Him somewhere, or that He is some sort of a historical point of interest, but that He is active in our lives, that He lives and causes us to truly live. St John the Evangelist introduces Christ to us in just this way: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1).
The man who was healed from demonic invasion in the Gospel today was given this exact mission, to be a witness. Although he wanted to follow Christ back to the other side of the Lake, Our Lord tells him to remain right where he was and to tell everyone “How much God had done for him.” He had a lot to tell and his openness allowed the Lord to work powerfully through him. Pope Francis has touched on this in His Encyclical EVANGELII GAUDIUM:
Today too, people prefer to listen to witnesses: they “thirst for authenticity” and “call for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they themselves know and are familiar with as if they were seeing him”. We are not asked to be flawless, but to keep growing and wanting to grow as we advance along the path of the Gospel; our arms must never grow slack. What is essential is that the preacher is certain that God loves him, that Jesus Christ has saved him and that his love always has the last word. Encountering such beauty, he will often feel that his life does not glorify God as it should, and he will sincerely desire to respond more fully to so great a love.
How about us? Do we see Christ as some theoretical or historical abstraction or as our Brother and Lord, living and risen from the dead, constantly calling us on to higher and higher life and love with Him?