From Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” to The Nightmare on Elm Street’s “Freddy;” from Friday the Thirteenth’s “Jason” to Stephanie Meier’s vampire “Voltaire”, we are always creating new monsters. Why are we constantly on the lookout for bigger, scarier “bumps in the night?” Why do we keep making up monsters that are so elaborate and extraordinary, so super-powered and immortal?

Maybe we need our monsters to be as unlike ourselves as possible so that we can ignore the presence of the real monsters that possess us . . . from the inside out.

Demonology isn’t something we talk about much less study anymore. But we can’t escape talking about demon possession after reading a text like today’s gospel lesson.

The “Geresene demoniac” is a classic “monster.” He is nothing like the “normal” people in …