A Word for the 23rd Sunday After Pentecost

«And when He» (Jesus Christ) «had stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house, but in the tombs» (Lk 8:27).

Did you hear, beloved brothers, the Gospel account read today of the demon-possessed man in the country of the Gadarenes, and of his healing by Jesus Christ? Did you hear how the demons tormented this unfortunate man, and how wretchedly he dragged out his own pitiable life? Did you see the divine authority of Jesus Christ over demons—over an entire legion of them, that is, over several thousand, who had taken up residence in this unfortunate man? Did you see the sudden destruction of a great herd of animals, the so-called unclean ones, into which the demons entered by the Savior’s own permission? Consider this account carefully, and let us draw a lesson from it: it is told for our own edification. There were demon-possessed people in former times; there are demon-possessed people today too; only today, in the new grace, demons act more secretly and more cunningly than they did in that old time, when their strength and power over people had not yet been solemnly broken, and they had far more freedom in the world. Even now, in fact, there are very, very many raging people. Which of us does not know the present-day kind of demon-possessed, or raging, drunkards? Who has not heard, and who does not know, how they—if they are men and married—torment and torture, not to speak of themselves, their own wives, and, if there are children too, to their misfortune, their own children as well; how, by the action of the demon, they not infrequently either hang themselves, or drive their own wives and children to death by their beatings and tormenting, and what, what does some poor woman not suffer from a drunken husband, or children from a drunken father! There is not strength enough to weep for the misfortunes in a house where a drunkard is found: a hell, a true hell, is made there; every day there are tears and groans. The drunkard drinks every day, and drags everything out of the house to drink it away. O fearsome passion! O fearsome madness! Who is to blame for this? Of course, the drunkard himself, who has come to this demonic state through his own greed for wine. Every sick person can be treated, but a drunkard cannot be treated by any means, unless he himself resolves decisively to abandon drunkenness and turn with his whole heart to the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone, by His own grace, can heal this fearsome, ruinous passion. I have happened to see many drunkards; among them I have seen some completely healed by the grace of Christ, to whose help they themselves diligently had recourse; but I have also seen, and you too have seen, many perish by a fearsome death, without repentance, by suicide or by drinking themselves to death. So then, 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 drunkards: seek diligently the help of the Savior, and He will surely save you, will drive from you the demonic host which has taken up residence in you because of your own intemperance, your own carelessness for yourself, your laziness and coldness toward prayer, your little faith and unbelief, your own estrangement from God and from the Church… But I have also seen true demon-possessed people, in whom demons had taken up residence, but who, by the inscrutable judgments of God, suffered mental derangement through them, and uttered, through them, fearsome blasphemies and foul speech; I have seen how fearsomely they were thrown, some unfortunate person, from corner to corner, or compelled to climb up the wall, and so forth. Such people, I think, together with the Apostle—God «delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved» (1Cor 5:5). But such demon-possessed people were, of course, in a state of non-accountability: they were not conscious of what they were doing. But drunkards are held accountable for their own actions; for they are not deprived of reason or freedom of action; and they will be called to account for their own drunkenness and for their own disgraceful conduct. «Drunkards… will not inherit the kingdom of God» (1Cor 6:10).

But there is, brothers, another kind of raging. These are evil, irritable, wrathful people. Have you seen wrathful, angry, evil people? How unpleasant they are in their anger! It is said in Scripture: «a wrathful man is not comely» (Prov 11:25). How is their whole face disfigured! What flashing eyes, like those of fierce beasts, in which malice and fury are seen! All of us are sometimes irritable, all of us are inclined to anger, and therefore all of us must ask the Lord, in repentance, for a spirit of meekness, humility, and patience. «Beloved, do not avenge yourselves», the Apostle exhorts, «but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord» (Rom 12:19). There are, besides, several kinds of quiet raging—silent or slanderous: such is the raging of envious people, who are consumed by another’s happiness or well-being, and who either suffer in silence in their soul, seeing the happiness of their neighbors, or revile and slander those whom they envy.

There is also the raging of the stingy, of those greedy for money, who, for gain and for its increase, are ready for every kind of unrighteousness, and who, at the loss of it, are ready to lay hands upon themselves, and whose hearts the demons have so hardened that they are moved by no calamity, whether private or public—who, seeing the hungry, the naked, the sick, the maimed, pass by every day and will not give a single kopeck, though their own treasuries overflow with the gifts of God. Is this not a form of raging madness—even though those subject to it walk calmly past the unfortunate every day, and do not count it a sin?

There is a raging of fleshly passion: those possessed by it fall into despondency and despair if their passion is not satisfied, or resolve upon the most shameful acts in order to satisfy it, or, not infrequently, even upon suicide. So that this or other raging passions may not overpower us, they must be bridled at the very outset; once they have grown strong, it becomes extremely difficult to master them, and, without the cooperation of grace, impossible.

There is also the mania of card-playing, when people calmly spend their evenings and nights at cards, killing precious time, while giving no heed to the things of God, paying no attention to their own soul or its salvation, and taking no care at all for repentance and virtue.

There is a mania, or passion, for spectacles. There are people who rave about the theater, waking and sleeping, and applaud theatrical celebrities until they are exhausted, while entering a church only once or twice a year, and then only to yawn. There is, in some people, a mania, or raging passion, for fashion in everything—especially in clothing, in luxurious household furnishings, in horses, and so forth—sparing no material means at all, yet trembling over a single kopeck to give to a beggar, or to donate to a church or a charitable institution. There is a mania of despondency and grief, especially in mothers after the loss of beloved children, or in wives after the loss of beloved husbands, sometimes finding no comfort or consolation in anything, because of a strong attachment to them and a lack of faith and Christian hope. There is a mania of fear, of vain dread, when a person is afraid of others like himself, or is afraid of everything around him, suspects everyone of evil designs, or, in general, assumes evil thoughts and intentions in everyone. There is also, in people, a mania, or raging, which fears or turns away from the church, from divine worship, from the singing of psalms and the reading of the Word of God—in short, from every holy thing: nothing will persuade them to come to church; lead them there, and they will tear themselves away and flee, or find some plausible pretext to avoid it—such an estrangement from God and from His holy temple sometimes occurs! To this same category belongs the raging of nihilism, which rejects everything holy, every truth of Revelation, everything precious to a rational being, especially to Christians—everything that comforts, strengthens, adorns, and elevates a person. There is a raging of foul speech, defiling the heart and soul and mouth of those who speak filthily, observed chiefly among the common people, and especially among the lower military ranks. So many are the different kinds of raging, or mania, in people! And not even all of them are listed here: for sinful raging takes countless forms, and the hydra of sin has many heads. By what remedy can we be healed of this moral sickness, by what means can we be saved from this many-headed monster, so as not to become the prey of the cunning of wily, evil, unclean, and foul demons? — Only by humble faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who trampled down the power of the devil, joined with sincere, deep repentance, prayer, and fasting. «This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting», says the Lord (Mt 17:21). For this reason, among others, the Holy Church has established fasts, so that Christians might have in them a weapon against the devil and his countless wiles. Behold, this present fast too the Holy Church has sent us, for our help, since yesterday. Let us receive this remedy of the Church willingly, and, according to our own strength, keep the fasts, that we may crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts. Amen.