Go Then!

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Gen 25:5, 8-20a; Mt 8:28-34

Today’s Gospel highlights the danger of resisting change and staying in the comfort zone. 

The passage clearly describes the condition of the demoniacs, who were such a threat to the people of the region that no one could travel by that road. 

While this was the condition, they should have appreciated Jesus’ saving intervention, though the deliverance from the demoniacs came at an economic loss. 

But it is painful to see that the people of the region narrowed the whole question to the economic loss that they suffered because of Jesus’ healing while disregarding the fact of deliverance from the evil. In other words, they closed their eyes to the spiritual gain because they calculated only the material loss that resulted from Jesus’ intervention. 

However, that is not all. Their request that Jesus must leave their district reflects the typical behaviour of those who resist change or do not feel the need to change.

Their refusal to accept Jesus and ignorance of the spiritual gain through him form the backdrop for our reflection on three key themes on embracing change and newness. 

1. Sometimes when we are so engrossed with material gains, spiritual freedom looks insignificant or even irrelevant. This might lead to spiritual stagnation. While our material needs are to be fulfilled, the craving for materiality cannot become the end of our lives. 

2. At times, we may like the change without showing any readiness to embrace the consequences of leaving the comfort zone. At this point, the change that we desire looks more like a burden than a blessing and reward. 

3. The unwillingness to change could also point to the degeneration that has seeped into us. That is not all. It could also mean that we got so used to the degeneration that we began to look at change as a needless intrusion rather than welcoming it as the needed transition. 

Let us pray that we may focus on spiritual gains rather than material comforts. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar