Glorious Cross May 9
His death is our ransom from death; his resurrection is our rising to life (II Preface of Easter).
It is hard to imagine being possessed by a devil. To not have control either of one’s interior life or of one’s behavior is frightening. But imagine the condition of the woman with seven demons! What chaos of soul and body! Mary Magdalene met Christ and was delivered. Certainly that meant for her an enormous adaptation: to live with interior silence after the cacophony of a demonic community within and to make free decisions after the impositions of seven evil forces, themselves in conflict. But what joy Mary Magdalene had, thanks to her new mastery of self, what sense of having already been resurrected! She could only cry tears to wash the feet of her liberator or lament the theft of his body buried behind the stone. Her mastery of self was the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus, the evidence of the victory of the Good Spirit over the Evil Spirit. Everyone given to Christ enjoys this fruit. The enslavement of human freedom is no more. The Christian now behaves according to divine inspirations. To remain in such a state demands a voluntary asceticism, itself a joyous expression of self-control. The person is liberated from the abuse of demons.
In the place where the leopard reigns because of his strength, the billy goat doesn’t pursue the kid. (Ntomba)
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