"My name is Legion..."

"..for we are many."

The account in today’s Gospel of our Lord’s encounter with the man possessed by Legion is a mighty gem: substantial and multifaceted. I could go on for hours, digging into the marvelous details of this incident and the valuable lessons therein - but not this day. For now, I would like to focus on the darkly horrifying response given to our Lord’s question:

“My name is Legion, for we are many.”

Some people foolishly dismiss the idea of demonic possession, while others foolishly obsess about it, but Legion’s answer to the question gives us an important reminder beyond the circumstances of demonic possession or obsession.

Everyday (it is to be hoped) we in some way acknowledge our sinfulness before God. Sometimes, sad to say, it may be simply verbal and generic, rattled off without thought or feeling (peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione yadda yadda yadda). Obviously this is wrong.

Sometimes, however, we may be keenly if not painfully aware of a sin in our lives: something we always do, something we always fail to do, some bad habit of thought or speech, something wrong from which we seem helpless to extricate ourselves.

But wait, there’s more…

A lesson of the story of Legion is that there may be more than one problem in our lives and in our hearts.

It is very important, as we seek the Lord’s grace to overcome our sinfulness and all that binds us against his will, that we go deeper than just a generic acknowledgement of sinfulness, that we go deeper than just The Big Sin (or two) we may have in our lives.

It is necessary for us to examine our consciences fully and to do our best to open ourselves completely to the Lord’s forgiving, healing, and strengthening grace – that infinitely wonderful love and grace that can overpower any areas of darkness, be they but a few or legion. Christ conquers all.

Then the man went off
and began to proclaim in the Ten Cities
what Jesus had done for him…