Monday, January 31, 2005

Gerasene Demoniac & Singapore's Casino

Today's Gospel was about Jesus & the Gerasene Demoniac (Mk 5:1-20)
And as I reflected and as Fr Gerard spoke in his sermon about how the people begged Jesus to leave the area, it just brought to mind the article in the papers about how religious institutions should keep out of the debate over the casino. (Too bad I can't find it online)

But if i remember it correctly, it was saying how religious bodies should not interfere with matters of the economy or something like that. And it just seemed so funny how the situation seemed so much like what was happening in the time of Jesus.

Lets say the spirits in the man are the evils of the casino. Then comes someone who says, let me cast out the evils into those pigs, and you get this human being back again. But the people say, why do you want to do that for? We have managed to isolate all the evils into one man, put all the controls in place where he will be less of a nuisance, and we have our pigs to keep us rich. Why don't you mind your own business, and not come and bother us.

But the problem is as in the gospel, the evil is not so easily contained.

"he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him" Mk 5:4
And so just for the sake of the cash cow or pigs, we are willing to sacrifice the few humans who might be affected by the casino. The gospel really puts it into perspective.

And of course, Jesus, once again is told, don't come and tell us how to run our lives. Praise God for all you who raised objections, we need to continually pray hard for the human dignity to be placed above money.

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