13th Week in Ord. Time, Wednesday – 30th June 2021 — Gospel: Mt 8,28-34
Contrasting Prayer Requests’
The demons believed not only in the existence of God and in the power of Christ, but in the reality of future judgment. They manifested their ‘statement of faith’ in their prayer request, “if you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine”. In fact, we can say they also believed in the power of prayer. Since they knew Christ had the power to send them into the swine they pleaded with him. On the other hand, when the people heard from the herdsmen that they lost their treasure of two thousand pigs they out rightly begged him to leave their territory. The prayer request of the citizenry was a sign of rejection. Ever since then Jesus has been criticized for the needless slaughter of pigs. Their condemnation portrays that they valued a herd of pigs more than the healing and liberation of two demoniacs. However, obviously Jesus teaches that He values human life above animals; God owns everything (Ps 50,10-11) and can do with it as He pleases. He brings peace to these men’s lives and to the community where, for a long time, they had been causing trouble.
