The passage from Mark presents a Jesus grappling with demons who fear to be cast out.
The unclean spirits gang up on the authentic servants of God. Francis knew something of this.
The Sources tell of what happened to him once, when he was hosted in Rome by Cardinal Leo of Santa Croce, who had wanted him to stay with him for some time.
"The proud demons flee before the lofty virtue of the humble, except in some cases in which divine clemency allows the humble to be slapped, precisely to keep them in humility, as Paul the apostle wrote of himself and as Francis experienced by direct experience [...]".
The saint, having accepted the invitation out of veneration and love for the cardinal, experienced the first night, after prayer, a veritable assault by demons, who beat him long and cruelly, and left him, in the end, half dead.
When they were gone, he called his companion and told him what had happened.
"Brother, demons have no power except within the limit arranged by Providence. Therefore I believe that they attacked me so fiercely, because my staying in the curia of the magnates does not make a good impression.
My brothers who dwell in poor places, hearing that I am staying with cardinals will perhaps suspect that I am mixed up in worldly things, being in the midst of honours and comforts.
I judge, therefore, that it is better for one who is set as an example to stay away from the curias and spend his life among the humble, in humble places.
In this way he will be a comfort, living in the same condition as them, to those who live in penury'.
They go, therefore, in the morning and, with humble apologies, bid the cardinal farewell" (FF 1115).
Before Grace, evil calls for reinforcements; but what defeats it, says Francis, is humility.
Therefore, not even ‘Legion’ can do anything before the humility of the Son of God and his servants.
As it is written in the Sources [Sacrum Commercium]:
"For he (Satan) is most proud, and his pride and haughtiness are even greater than his strength.
He has great fury because of you, and he will turn all the weapons of his cunning against you, seeking to sprinkle the poison of his malice, because after having concluded the war by routing and knocking down others, he cannot bear to see you standing over him" (FF 2026).
It matters that, having been saved, we proclaim the mercy God used on us. This devastates 'Legion'!
Francis does so, attesting how the poverty of the Son of God, transferred between the folds of everyday life, drags unclean spirits off the cliff, into the sea of their contradictions, annihilating them.
The holy life of him and his fraternity at the beginning makes them heralds of Mercy, singers of the Almighty.
«Go into your house to your own and proclaim to them how much the Lord has done for you and that he had mercy on you» (Mk 5:19)
Monday, 4th wk. in O.T. (Mk 5:1-20)
