5 July 2023 - Wednesday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time - Matthew 8:28-34

    I have been trying to go out to visit the inmates who are unable to come to our Masses at the state prison, those who are in the units filled with gang members and the lowest classified inmates and those who are newly arrived to the prison system and are in the intake phase of this process. I recognized a young man from a previous visit.  I knew he was in there for having committed crimes due to his drug addiction.  When I saw him this time, I knew something was not right.  I asked him if he was ok, that he did not look good, and he said that everything is ok.  As I was leaving that area, the inmate who is my eucharistic minister remarked to me that certainly that young man was very strung out on drugs.  Drugs and other bad things are things that the inmates can obtain if they really want them.  It really saddened me that here was a young man thrust in the prison system for several years, having committed crimes that fed his drug habit, and now that drug habit is still controlling him in prison.  

       As the Gospel today describes the healing of two demoniacs, we can think of how we can have our own demons that try to control us in life, just like a lot of the prison inmates I serve in my ministry.  The Gospel tells us that these demons possessing these two men were so violent that the people of that region could not even travel down that road.  Those demons attacked these men spiritually, mentally, and physically. It strikes me that Jesus never blames those individuals who are possessed by demons or who are afflicted by diseases for their state of being.  Instead, Jesus sees them as victims of powers that are greater than they are.  They were in need of deliverance and healing in their lives, which is what Jesus does for them.  Our psalm today states that the Lord hears the cry of the poor.  Indeed, Jesus hears our cries.  Yet, we need to do our part too. We cannot just sit there passively waiting for Jesus to heal us.  Like that inmate I visited who is losing his addiction to drugs, we pray that the Lord help us resist temptation.