Although Saint Mark describes Jesus as preaching and driving out demons as if these were separate and distinct functions, in many instances these are one and the same thing. For with Jesus preaching is always synonymous with the Truth and when the Truth is preached and heard, falsehood and ignorance—those hiding places of the demons—are exposed and we are freed from their enslavement. Accordingly, the philosopher Sciacca can say that man is only free when he is fully prisoner of the truth. Christ continues to preach this truth to us through our prayerful listening to his word here in the liturgy and during our personal lectio divina when, as has been observed, we don’t so much read God’s Word as we are read by God’s Word. Ideally therefore, this encounter with the God’s word should expose all those still hidden vestiges of falsehood and ignorance in our hearts so that we may experience that liberation and freedom that is the defining mark of our divine adoption and of being children of the Most High. Through the intercessions of Saints Maur and Placid may we be granted the grace to open our hearts ever more fully to God’s word which is his Truth—that truth that sets us free.
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