The Healing of “Legion”

The Gospel of Mark Chapter 5: 1-20. 

While I do not consider my name, “Mildred,” to define me or reflect my core sense of self, my name is a symbol of my identity and names are a relevant marker of identity in most cultures. Thus, in this gospel story, when Jesus meets the possessed and suffering man, Jesus’ first question to him is not, “What’s wrong with you?” Rather, Jesus asks the man, “What is your name?” Jesus is inquiring about something deeper than the man’s problem; he wants to know who he is, or who the man thinks he is.

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

We can assume, based on other miracle stories in the Second Testament of the Bible, that this man whom Jesus meets at the edge of society had been exiled from his community for some reason that then led to his being labeled as “demon-possessed.” Thus, the man begs Jesus not to further exile him, an example of his deteriorated sense of self and belief that he/they were not worthy of belonging anywhere other than on the edges of society where Jesus now finds him.

The man responds to Jesus saying that his name is “Legion”. The term “Legion” comes from the Latin legio (meaning “gathering” or “chosen body”). Historically, it refers specifically to a large military unit in the ancient Roman army. Reflecting on that linguistic and cultural differentiation in this reading is crucial. The original root meaning of the word legio is “community”, but the word “Legion” in this culturally based context means an army of thousands of soldiers.

Moral Injury is the profound psychological, emotional, and spiritual distress that occurs when a human acts in a way that causes harm, or fails to act in a way that prevents harm, and which violates their deeply held spiritual or moral values.

Imagine for a moment that due to trauma, or a morally injurious event, your sense of self has been shattered into a thousand warring parts. No wonder the man felt and acted “possessed.” And no wonder the result was isolation and deeper madness. When we experience a morally injurious event and we are dispossessed from our core sense of self, rejected from community, and no longer hold any self- trust, the resulting sense of shame can certainly feel like being possessed by many demons. These “demons” are constructed from our worst failures and are fed by shame.

When we feel guilty, often after time passes and we talk through our feelings with friends or loved ones, and we seek forgiveness, we learn from the experience. The result is socially adaptive and can lead to an even greater sense of self-trust and belonging due to the process of repair. That is not the case in events that result in profound moral injury. When we experience moral injury, the sense of shame and loss of core identity can isolate us and burden us so deeply that we do not have the capacity to receive forgiveness or seek repair. This isolation and unworthiness can then lead to serious psychological symptoms that appear pathological, psychotic, and antisocial. In this era of modern psychology these symptoms may be labeled as depression, anxiety, addiction, hoarding, disordered eating, self-harm, extreme violence, and even suicide.

In cases of moral injury, a human requires the compassion of others to witness their pain, call them back into themselves, and assist them in restoring their core identity, thereby repairing self-trust and community belonging. In this gospel story Jesus provides this healing to the man named “Legion”. Jesus’s action is referred to as a miracle. But what if this “miracle” was more simply a Self-led response coming from a compassionate, calm, and confident human being? What if, by learning from Jesus in this story, we could catch a glimpse of an effective prevention of moral despair and effective treatment for the psychological and spiritual wounds of moral injury, and thereby offer that healing to more people, repairing their human dignity and restoring them to community? This would be both clinically significant and increase public health and community safety.

Jesus’ engagement with the man called “Legion” might appear so simple that we discount it as clinical or pastoral in today’s modern professional culture. But perhaps the simplicity of Jesus’ intervention is the real miracle. What if healing humans who suffer the pain of isolation and loneliness which results from moral injury is the work not only of professional clinicians and clergy, but is a deeply communal experience. What if we could ground community life in this  application and make it even more accessible to the general public. Maybe the healing of moral injury is something we can and must take responsibility for within community and learn to implement in our daily work and living.

If we are to work and live within community in ways that prevent and heal people we love and care for from moral injury, what exactly can we learn from what Jesus did for the man called “Legion”? 

Jesus meets the man where he is.

First, Jesus met the man where he was. We might equate this to the clinical value of “beginning where the client is.” Jesus often walked on the edges of society, meeting people who had been rejected from community for various reasons such as illnesses, maladjusted behaviors, or being orphaned, or widowed. These were the people Jesus met and healed because Jesus was willing and able to go where they were and to witness their pain and their humanity. As clinicians we now know the effectiveness of meeting people where they are. This knowledge and wisdom has led to the rapid increase in the deployment of “field-based clinicians” who travel to impacted communities and provide contextual in-home or community mental health services. This recent development is sighted in multiple clinical journals and has led to billions of dollars of funding to design, evaluate and scale-up such mobile frameworks and has led to a significant increase in access to mental health care for the most vulnerable populations. 

Jesus was authentically curious.

Second, Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” Jesus led in this encounter with authentic curiosity. In essence, Jesus said, “Tell me who you are; I want to know you.” This curious and humble approach is also a deeply held religious value, as well as a Code of Ethics (Cultural Humility) within professions such as Social Work.

But how often do we as clergy or social workers have the privilege of the time and energy to authentically be curious about our clients? How often do we seek to know our clients beyond the required checkboxes of clinical diagnosis and pathology? How often do we compartmentalize and shut down our unique interest when we are with clients that are carrying heavy burdens of shame and trauma—and, if we are honest, how often do we do so to protect our own internal systems from further overwhelm? Perhaps if the clinical impact were studied and the results were clear we could point to data to prove the clinical effectiveness of authentic curiosity to those in leadership within the systems we often work under. And perhaps these systems might take efforts to protect employees and clinicians by granting time and energy for authentic curiosity, so that clinicians did not feel the need to self-protect by denying the authentic curiosity for those we serve. 

Jesus Leads the Man in a Process of Biographical Restructuring.

Thirdly, Jesus reminded the man that who he had come to know himself to be was not who God made him to be. Jesus declared that Legion was not his name and that he was in reality at his core, not “a large military unit.” 

Jesus declared that he was, in fact, a child of God and that he was worthy of being seen, heard, and understood.

This action on the part of Jesus might be seen as the most problematic for us in the field of mental health. For those of us at the intersection of spiritual wellness, such as chaplains and clergy who are also trained mental health clinicians, we can find ourselves needing to justify the clinical effectiveness of interventions based on autobiographical restructuring, such as adult baptisms, conversions, confession, absolution, and the sacrament of the Rite of Reconciliation. 

It is clear these “religious” or “spiritual” rituals need further evaluation and research to explore the metrics of effectiveness in the treatment of moral injury and in mental wellness. If we are to study and learn more about spiritual rituals as clinical interventions, first we must be brave enough to acknowledge the use of such interventions in treatment and have the courage to explore them as clinically sound, scientifically measurable and effective when implemented ethically. 

Jesus Restores the man to Right-Relationship and Community Belonging.

Lastly, after being reminded of his inherent dignity and restructuring his core identity through a narrative process, the man feels “healed” by Jesus and requests to go with Jesus when Jesus leaves the region. Jesus does something surprising here. Jesus says “no” to the request of the healed man to leave his region and travel with Jesus. Rather than allowing the man to follow Jesus, which would have allowed the man to avoid re-entry and repair with his community, Jesus says to the man, “Go home to your community and tell them what has happened to you.”

Jesus initiates a restorative process by deflecting the man’s tendency toward avoidance, and thus seeks to restore the man’s relationship to his community. He invites him to believe he is in need of more than healing by an external source, and that, in fact, repair with his community is required for his full healing. 

Many clinicians know the power of exposure therapy when that mode is clinically justified. We have seen how avoidance for people with disordered social functioning only leads to more deeply entrenched disordered behaviors. But how often do we add communal repair to our treatment plans? What might it look like if every treatment plan for psychological healing included an element of communal engagement, such as volunteer work, making amends with those we have harmed, or seeking or offering forgiveness? What if clinicians knew that regardless of how effective our clinical modality is, or how good we are at implementing our interventions, one-on-one therapy is simply not enough for full healing from morally injurious events and that communal engagement is required for full healing?  Jesus highlights in his actions that moral injury is a social wound, and therefore the healing of it must be a social process. 

Now, granted, this is one short story of a miracle performed by the man named Jesus. It is a short story and lacks details such as how the community responded when the healed man returned, or if he even did return home. As clinicians, we know well that creating a treatment plan does not mean the plan is fully engaged or that our clients trust the plan, or feel accountable to the plan.

Our moments of healing with those that suffer from moral injury will be more complicated; the treatment will require a longer therapeutic or clinical process, because we are not Jesus. 

But as spiritual leaders, community members, and fellow pilgrims, this story offers us hope, a path to follow, and a way in which compassion, curiosity, and authentic care can restore people to wellness and to community, for the common good. 

For those of us that declare that mental health, community safety, public health, and right-relationship are deeply held values, and for whom those values ground us in our core identity, this way of healing that Jesus offers us in this gospel story is Good News indeed.