The pitiable condition of the Man From the Tomb

Gospel Thoughts

*Fourth Week : Monday*

*GOSPEL - Mk 5:1-20*

*First Reading - Heb 11:32-40*

*The pitiable condition of the Man From the Tomb*

*1) A man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit*

*Man from the tomb* is a frightening expression. We never hear such expression and we are frightened about to hear such expression.

As we know tomb is a scary place for all the living beings. 

Specially when it comes to the human beings, tomb symbolizes the end of our life

Death and tomb has close connection with each other 

So *man from the tomb* is a terrible expression

*2) Inside Scene of the Tomb*

Usually we don't want to see the inside of the tomb

Because it is full of foul smell, rotten things, scary scene, and lifeless bones are found 

Such horrible scene no body wants to see it and people avoid seeing such things

*3) Situation of the Man from the Tomb*

First of all this man was possessed with an evil spirit, which made to live in the tombs. Finally this led him to become the *man from the Tomb*

As the tomb symbolizes the death, this man was practically dead to many things 

He was dead to good things, divine realities, Gods grace, spiritual life, human life, decent life, and to the respectful living 

Tomb is also a place of foul smell. Like wise the *man from the tomb* was stinking in many areas 

His body was stinking, his mind was stinking, his soul was stinking, his approach, attitude, behavior, and his words were stinking 

His whole life along with various aspects were stinking 

Tomb also symbolises the rotten things. This man from tomb was rotten in many ways. 

His mind, heart, normal way of life was completely rotten 

Tomb is a scary place: the man from tomb appeared to be very scary

Because he was bound in chains, no one was able to restrain him, he was so powerful that he broke all the chains, day night stayed in the tomb, crying with loud vice and bruising himself with stones.

Such a scene would appear as scary to any one 

*4) The unclean spirit or sin led the man into tomb* 

It is very clear that the unclean spirit led the man into tombs and finally made him to live in the tomb

So the final destination of the evil spirit or sin is the tomb

And tomb symbolizes the death, destruction, end and lifeless thing and terrible smell 

This is the destination of the sin and evil spirit

*5) This unclean spirit had terrible and uncontrollable strength*

He could break the chain 

He could live in the tombs 

He could cry loud and bruise himself with stone 

This shows the uncontrollable strength

There are some areas even in our life which have some traits of this unclean spirit 

The unclean spirit of anger gives us uncontrollable strength

The unclean spirit of gossip has tremendous power to spread the lies 

The unclean spirit of revenge is terribly powerful when it wants to take revenge

The unclean spirit of jealousy gives us tremendous power to fight against the good person 

The unclean spirit of narrow mentality for language, culture, rite, region, mannerism gives us tremendous strength to fight for these useless things 

All these fights initiated by the unclean spirit finally leads us to the Tomb. Therefore we need to be careful 

*6) Mad man lives in the tomb*

A man with mentally not sound will live in the tombs

In other words a mad man is found in the tombs

Sin or evil spirit finally takes away our spiritual mental balance and we become mentally not sound people to do our normal spiritual activities. 

So we need to be very careful 

*7)  Which are the unclean spirits in me make me to live in tombs*

Following are the various tombs 

Anger, revenge, greed, pride, gossip, etc 

Be careful about these tombs which destroy our life

*God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones*

*Fr Maxim Dsouza*

*Jeppu Seminary*

*Mangalore*