My name is Legion
The gospels tell a story of a man, tormented by demons, who was forced from his community, abandoned, chained up and left to live among the tombs. When Jesus arrives on the scene he provokes a response from the suffering man who gives voice to the trauma in his head and heart. When Jesus asks his name, he replies with “Legion”, for his demons are many. Jesus sends the demons from the man into a nearby group of pigs, who immediately rush off into the lake and drown. The pig-herders are upset and the local citizens are afraid and angry, demanding that Jesus leave their region; especially when they find the tormented man seated, clothed and in his right mind.
This curious and provocative story is richly symbolic of the way our fractures and disruption can leave us in state of torment and suffering. This story is not simply about supernaturalism and the exorcism of demonic entities; much more than this we are invited to see ourselves in the story and to ask provocative and challenging questions.
Firstly, what kind of response do we have toward those around us who struggle to manage their own fractures? Do we cast them out from among us so that we can carry on our everyday lives in comfort and blissful ignorance? This story challenges us to see others with empathy, to see the fractures that others carry as something that does not obliterate their humanness but compels us to create space for wholeness to emerge.
The second challenge is to us as a society. Are we like the pig-herders, more upset about the damage to our income than we are to the health and wellbeing of the vulnerable and those living in the midst of suffering? These questions are played out in every society and are finding their way to the surface again as we negotiate life through a global pandemic.
And this story also challenges the systems and structures that cause such suffering in the first place. The name “legion” is the name used for a group of Roman soldiers, and the area this story takes place has suffered under the violence of the Roman empire. Perhaps it is the trauma caused by widespread systemic oppression that gives rise to the man’s pain. And if Jesus casts it out, then perhaps the challenge to us is to keep challenging those systems that cause unjust pain and suffering for those who are vulnerable and at risk.
Our last question is more specifically personal; to ask what it is in me that needs healing and liberating. We can be quick to see the “demons” in others, but we all carry stories and experiences within us that disrupt and disorganise our equilibrium. Sometimes those things sit beneath the surface and so here, in the midst of that discontent, we are invited to be present to God and for God to be present to us. For some of us it may be anxiety, especially in a year like 2020 and an era of yet more lockdown. For some of us it might be anger, frustration, depression or alienation. And so the invitation is to cultivate the awareness that God can be (and is) present to us in the midst of that wrestle. And if we can allow the breath and light of the divine presence to illuminate, then perhaps we’ll find that that same presence will liberate too.