In our first reading, we heard Amos exhort the people to hate evil and love good. For Christians striving for holiness this seems an almost unnecessary statement, for what serious Christian would love evil! However, our gospel incident reminds us that although we might more naturally hate evil our loving the good is not always unambiguous. There is a price to be paid for goodness and sometimes that price can seem too high. A herd of swine for people whose livelihood depended on these unfortunate animals seems to have been too high a price for the demoniacs’ liberation and healing. And so the townsfolk beg Jesus to leave their district. In examining our own lives, we need to identify those sins and vices that maintain their hold over us because the cost of freeing ourselves from them is felt to be just too high. Yet, only when we pay that price will we be truly free and possess peace and a joy that is priceless.
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