A Homily for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (28)

Today, beloved brothers and sisters, we heard an evangelical narrative from Mark about the healing by Jesus Christ of a demon-possessed deaf and mute boy, for whom his father asked, through the expulsion of the most evil unclean spirit causing the wretched boy deafness and muteness. “You dumb and deaf spirit”, said the Lord to the unclean one, “I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more. And crying out, and convulsing him greatly, the unclean spirit came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, He is dead. But Jesus, taking him by the hand, lifted him up; and he arose” (Mk 9:25-27). But listen, how evil was the demon tormenting the boy. The father of this boy said to the Lord, “that the demon, wherever it seized him, threw him down, and the wretched one foamed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, and became rigid” (Mk 9:18). This also happened when the father brought him to the Savior. And when the Lord asked the father, as if not knowing, although, as God, He knew all things: “How long has this been happening to him? He said, since childhood, and added that the demon had often thrown him both into fire and into water to destroy him” (Mk 9:21-22); and he asked the Lord to take pity on him and his son and help if He could. Jesus said to him: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23). And the wretched man of little faith cried out with tears: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). See what power the Lord attributes to faith and to those who believe: “All things are possible to him who believes”, He says. One who believes can even cast out demons and heal all kinds of diseases. But how powerless and pitiful is the unbeliever! He cannot even master himself, cannot overcome his own sins, but, like a slave, serves them and is tormented by them. Since the wretched father first brought his demon-possessed son to the apostles, and they could not cast out this demon, they asked the Lord in private: Why were we unable to cast it out? The Lord said to them: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). Here is praise from the Lord for fasting and prayer. Here is the evangelical foundation of fasting. Why then do those calling themselves followers of the Gospel expel fasting from the community as if it were unnecessary! Is it not because now passions and iniquities have multiplied among us, and demons of various kinds, because some Christians have broken their covenant with the Church and rejected, as a superfluous work, prayer and fasting? And they live like irrational beasts, being led only by various lusts, while others, in their malice, with foam at their mouths, like true demon-possessed persons, have rushed to every evil: to murders, suicides, arson, mine-laying, explosions, and the like. Yes, beloved brothers and sisters, such people have reached such terrible madness precisely from unbelief, intemperance, impurity, and all the destructive consequences of this unbelief. The gentle evangelical faith does not preach murders, regicide, mine-laying, and explosions—it says: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God”, and that we must obey them “not only for wrath but also for conscience’ sake” (Rom 13:1,5), and commands us to “pray for the king and for all who are in authority”, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence” (1Tim 2:2). Lord, enlighten the eyes of the hearts blinded by malice of these wretched demon-possessed ones of our unfortunate time, rising up against divinely established authorities, that they may know into what terrible abyss they are digging for themselves, into what terrible hellish chasm they are ready to plunge themselves. In ancient, pre-Christian times, some unfortunate ones among the Jews rose up against the established authorities, against Moses and Aaron, reproaching them with alleged tyranny, merely murmured: and what befell them, what punishment of God? The earth opened under them, and alive they descended into hell with their families; and others, less guilty, were consumed by fire issuing from the temple (Num 16:1-35). Behold how grave a sin is rebellion against authority. What then awaits our nihilists, what judgment of God? All the more terrible, the greater the gifts of God they have spurned. For who are our nihilists and terrorists? Baptized people, Christians, reach such madness, such murders and suicides, such satanic crimes! O, why were they born? Why did they not perish in the womb of their mother? It would have been better for them not to be born. So ungratefully, so wickedly, so foolishly to trample the gifts of God: the grace of baptism, of chrismation, of communion with the body and blood of the Lord—this is truly terrible! O, unfortunate parents of such children! What shame must they endure!

Brothers and sisters! Let us with all our heart hold fast to the faith and the Church of God, this only saving ark, saving from the universal fire of the future, which will befall in its time all the lawless. Let us hold fast to the sacred institutions of the Church, leading us to salvation, let us keep the fasts and prayers inviolably, and be diligent in the service of God. The Devil, our enemy’s salvation, does not sleep, but “as a roaring lion walks about” us, “seeking whom he may devour” (1Pet 5:8), and how many he has devoured! Fasting and prayer with diligence, with humility, with faith and love—a powerful weapon against the devil and against all passions warring within us. Amen.