Legion

Legion with his “impure spirit” and wild and dangerous behaviour was frightening. I’ve heard it said that depression can be anger that has been ignored, repressed or denied. Anger can also be the energy we need for change to happen. But what happens when anger can no longer be bottled up, when it begins to erupt with the force we see in Legion, that can frighten us as much as other people. What do we do then?

Mark 5: 1-10

(Jesus and his disciples) went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.

² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones…

LEGION

This anger

Ice cold pools

Purified lakes of cold mercury

Poisonous

Alluring

No longer still

No longer quiescent

This anger

No longer supressed

Or safely sealed

Stirs

Deep within

This anger

Corrodes

Its hunger

Eats away the bricks and mortar

Carefully constructed

To cover and contain

This anger simmered over time

Over a cold, cold heat

Fingers its way

Through slits and pressures

To consume

All that I am

I am

LEGION

The howling that you hear

Night and day

is me

unleashed among the tombs

I do not rest in peace

Naked,

I cut myself with stones,

Bleeding,

you cannot restrain me

though you chain me

and you fear me

Chains

I wrench apart

Shackles

I break in pieces

No one

can subdue me

no one is stronger than I. I let

No one

near

No one

Dare

I am

LEGION

Then …

a voice

His voice

A voice like many thunders

Commanding attention

Holding me

Holding me

Until the anger drains away

And the wound is clean

And still I’m held

Arise, my love, my fair one and come away

For now the winter is past

The rains are over and gone

The flowers appear on the earth

The time of singing has come.     Song of Songs 2: 10-12