The Gadarene Demoniac

A Sermon for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

And when He (Jesus Christ) came out onto the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had been possessed by demons for many years, and wore no clothing, and did not live in a house, but in the tombs (Lk 8:27)

Have you heard, beloved brethren, the Gospel account read today about the demoniac in the country of the Gadarenes and his healing by Jesus Christ? – You heard how the demons tormented the unfortunate man, and how he wretchedly dragged out his miserable life? You saw the divine power of Jesus Christ over the demons, over a whole legion of them, that is, over several thousand that had entered into the unfortunate man? You saw the sudden destruction of a multitude of animals, the so-called unclean ones, into which the demons entered by the Savior’s permission[1]? – Let us look carefully into this account and take a lesson from it: it was told for our instruction. There were demoniacs in former times; there are demoniacs even now; only now – in the time of the new grace – the demons act more covertly and more cunningly than in that old time, when their power and authority over people had not yet been solemnly crushed, and they had far more room in the world. Even now, however, there are very, very many people in a frenzy. Which of us does not know today’s kind of demoniacs, or frenzied drunkards? Do not be surprised that I call drunkards demoniacs: they truly are such. Who has not heard, and who does not know, how they – if they are men with families – torment and torture – I do not even speak of themselves – their wives, and, if there are children, alas, their children as well; so that, under the action of the demons, they often either throw themselves into the noose or drive their wives and children to death by their beatings and abuse; and what, what does some wretched woman not endure from a drunken husband, or children from a drunken father! There would be no strength enough to weep over the misfortunes in the house where a drunkard takes up residence; a hell, a true hell comes to be there; every day tears and groans. The drunkard drinks every day and drags everything out of the house to drink it away. O, terrible passion! Terrible frenzy! Who is at fault here? Certainly the drunkard himself, who reached this demonic state through his greed for wine. Every sick person can be treated, but a drunkard cannot be treated by anything at all unless he himself firmly resolves to give up drunkenness and turns with all his heart to the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone by His grace can heal this terrible, deadly passion. I have had occasion to see many drunkards; among them I have seen some completely healed by the grace of Christ, to whose help they themselves fervently resorted; but many I have seen – and you have seen as well – perishing by a terrible end, without repentance, by suicide or by drinking themselves to death.

So, I say, I have seen many drunkards completely healed by the grace of Christ, which they sincerely sought and which they received, and this gives me occasion to say, for the edification of all drunkards: earnestly seek help from the Savior, and He will certainly save you; He will drive out of you the demonic host which has taken up its dwelling in you because of your intemperance, your neglect of yourself, your laziness and coldness toward prayer, your little faith and unbelief, your departure from God and from the Church… But I have also seen true demoniacs, in whom demons had entered, by the unsearchable judgments of God, and produced in them derangement of mind, uttering through them terrible blasphemies and foul speech; I saw how dreadfully they threw one wretched man from corner to corner, or made him climb the wall, and so on. Such people, I think—together with the apostle—God has handed over to Satan for the wearing away of the flesh, so that the spirit may attain salvation[2]. But such demoniacs were, of course, in a state of non-accountability: they did not know what they were doing. But drunkards are held answerable for their actions: for they are not deprived of understanding or freedom of action, and they will be called to account for their drunkenness and their disgraceful acts. Drunkards will not be heirs of the kingdom of God[3].

But there is, brothers, another kind of raving. These are wicked, irritable, wrathful people. Have you seen wrathful, angry, wicked people? How ugly they are in their anger! And Scripture says: A furious man is not comely[4]. How deformed their whole face becomes! What gleaming eyes, like those of savage beasts, in which malice and fury are visible! We are all irritable at times, we are all prone to anger, and therefore all of us must in repentance ask the Lord for a spirit of meekness, humility, and patience. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, exhorts the apostle, but yield place to the wrath of God; for it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me, I Myself will repay, says the Lord[5]. There are still several more kinds of quiet—silent or evil-speaking—frenzy: such is the frenzy of envious people, whom another’s happiness or well-being devours, and who either suffer in soul in silence as they see the happiness of those near them, or revile and slander those whom they envy.

There is the frenzy of misers, greedy for money, who for the sake of gain and its multiplication are ready for every kind of injustice, and who over its loss are ready to lay violent hands on themselves, and in whom demons have so hardened the heart that they are not moved by any calamity, neither private nor public; who, seeing the hungry, the naked, the sick, the maimed, pass them by every day and will not give a single kopeck, even though their treasuries are overflowing with the gifts of God. Is this not madness, even though those afflicted with it calmly pass the unfortunate by every day and do not count it a sin?

There is the frenzy of fleshly passion: those possessed by it fall into despondency and despair if their passions are not satisfied, or they resolve upon the most shameful actions for the sake of satisfying it, or not infrequently even upon suicide itself. So that this or other frenzied passions may not overcome us, we must curb them at their very beginning; when they have grown strong, it is then extremely difficult to master them, and without the aid of grace it is altogether impossible.

There is also the mania for card playing, when people calmly pass evenings and nights over their cards, killing their precious time, and pay no heed to the works of God, give no attention to their own soul or to its salvation, and take no care at all for repentance and virtue.

There is the mania, or passion, for spectacles. There are people who rave about the theater both awake and in their sleep, who applaud theatrical celebrities until they grow weary, while they step into church only once or twice a year—and even then only in order to yawn.

There is the mania of fearfulness, of vain fear, when a man is afraid of those like himself, or fears everything around him, suspects everyone of evil designs, or generally presumes unkind thoughts and intentions in all;—there is the mania of fastidiousness, when people consider everyone and everything unclean—and they wash ten or twenty times over some object that an outsider has touched.

There is also in people a mania, or demon frenzy, that fears or turns away from the church, from the divine services, from psalmody and the reading of the word of God, from what is holy in general: for anything in the world you cannot persuade them to come to church; lead them there, and they will tear themselves away and run off, or excuse themselves under all sorts of plausible pretexts:—such is the estrangement there can be from God and from His holy temple! — To this same category belongs the demon frenzy of nihilism, which rejects everything holy, all the truths of revelation… everything that is dear to a rational being, especially to Christians, everything that consoles, strengthens, adorns, and exalts man. There is the demon frenzy of foul speech, which defiles the heart and soul and mouth of those who use filthy language, seen chiefly among the common folk and especially among the lower military ranks.

What a number of different kinds of demon frenzy, or mania, there are in people! And even these are not all of them: for sinful frenzy has countless kinds, and the hydra of sin is many-headed. How then shall we be healed of this moral sickness, how shall we be saved from this many-headed monster, so as not to become the prey of the cunning of the deceitful, wicked, impure, and foul demons? Only by humble faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who trampled down the power of the devil, by sincere and deep repentance, by prayer and fasting. This kind goes out only by prayer and fasting[6], says the Lord. For this very purpose, among others, the fasts were instituted by the holy Church, so that Christians might have in them a weapon against the devil and his countless wiles.

And so this fast too the holy Church has sent to our aid, beginning yesterday. Let us accept this remedy of the Church willingly, and to the best of our strength let us keep the fasts, that we may crucify the flesh together with its passions and lusts. Amen.