Homily on the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. -Met. Korniliy (Titov)
(Luke 8:26–39 – The Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
The Gospel account we heard today at the Divine Liturgy about the man possessed by demons may seem far removed from our everyday lives. Yet it is no accident that, in the yearly cycle of Sunday Gospels, this story of healing is read twice – so that we may once again be reminded of the destructive work of the enemy and of the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to withstand the wiles of the evil one. The Apostle Peter warns us that the adversary of the human race never sleeps: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Brothers and sisters! Christ’s Church is like a ship tossed about on the sea of life by many storms and tempests – both external and internal. In His all-wise providence, Christ sometimes permits us to endure storms in order to strengthen us in faith.
Today’s Gospel reading is preceded by the account of the stilling of the storm. One day our Lord Jesus Christ set out in a boat with His disciples across the sea toward the country of the Gadarenes. At night a great storm arose, while Christ was asleep. The disciples, still weak in faith, cried out to the Lord: “Teacher, we are perishing! Save us!” He arose, rebuked the wind and the waves, and there was a great calm. Then He said to them: “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Afterward the disciples said to one another in amazement: “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey Him!” Only when Christ later healed the demoniac in the land of the Gadarenes did they truly understand that He is the Son of God – exactly as we hear in today’s Gospel from Luke.
When the Lord, having stilled the storm, came ashore with His disciples in the country of the Gadarenes, they were met by a certain man possessed by demons. Seeing Jesus, the demon cried out with the man’s voice: “What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” The Lord asked him: “What is your name?” He answered: “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. The demons begged the Lord not to send them into the abyss, but to permit them to enter a herd of swine. The Lord allowed it. The entire herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned. The local people, having been told what happened by the swineherds, came to Jesus and asked Him to depart from their region. Jesus granted their request and sailed away. The man who had been healed begged to go with Him, but Jesus said: “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went throughout the whole city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.
The man described as “possessed” was completely overcome by an evil power that had taken control of his mind, will, and body. No human effort could restrain him; he broke every chain they tried to bind him with, fled into the wilderness, and lived among the tombs – a place where nothing human remained.
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we too are possessed by dark powers – when anger overtakes us. Though loved ones try to reason with us and stop our hostility and malice, we often resist, tear apart friendships, and turn away even from those closest to us. In today’s Gospel we see how Christ came to this wretched possessed man, and the demon cried through him: “Why have You come to me? What have we in common? Why do You want to torment me?” Jesus Christ commanded that evil, destructive power to depart from the man.
When we live without repentance, when our sins pile up over our heads, unclean spirits – by God’s permission – can take possession of us and strip away the bright garment of Baptism, in which we renounced the shameful works of Satan. Sometimes we resemble that demoniac who no longer lived in a house: through laziness and negligence we fail to visit God’s holy temple and instead dwell among the tombs – that is, in our passions and lusts – where demons seize our will and compel us to do lawless deeds. The holy Apostle John the Theologian teaches: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8).
Yet we can become free from these evil powers. Let us look honestly into ourselves: what is it within us that darkens our hearts, clouds our mind, turns our will toward evil, and makes our words and actions destructive and dead? Let us approach Christ with humility – in confession, prayer, and Holy Communion – trusting in God’s help.
The Fathers and teachers of the Church bear witness that there exists a kingdom of Satan and the fallen angels, filled not only with hatred toward God but toward all people, and especially toward Christians, whom they strive in every way to harm. Yet a true Christian must resist them. The devil always tailors his temptations to the disposition of a person’s soul, for man has been granted freedom to choose between good and evil, between light and darkness, between God and Belial. In spite of all the enemy’s cunning, the great ascetics of the faith knew when and with what weapons to defend themselves against the fiery darts of the devil. The Savior Himself says: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). Bodily labors, silence, patience, humility, and trust in God’s help and mercy were also weapons against the wiles of the devil.
Here is one example the Fathers give: the venerable Daniel related that a certain desert hermit was asked to cast a demon out of a possessed woman. As soon as he entered her house, the woman struck him on the cheek. Following the Lord’s commandment, the hermit turned the other cheek. The demon, tormented by this act of the saint, cried out: “What power! The commandment of Jesus Christ drives me out!” – and the woman was instantly healed.
The devil himself confessed to the venerable Macarius of Egypt that nothing overcomes him as much as humility. There is no stronger shield and no mightier weapon against demons in spiritual warfare than the name of Jesus, teaches Saint John of the Ladder. And Saint Simeon the New Theologian writes: “Just as no one dares approach or interrupt a person who is speaking with an earthly king, so demons dare not draw near to one who is conversing with God.” As long as a person remains in prayer and spiritual contemplation, the enemy cannot overcome him. Therefore, brethren, let us also take up the very weapons with which the saints fought against evil spirits. Following their example, we too shall emerge victorious from the struggle against the enemies of our salvation – that legion of the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Let us look at our contemporary life, let us examine its phenomena closely, and we shall see that the terrifying image of the Gadarene demoniac is repeated in it in thousands of forms. The evil and cunning enemy of the human race has achieved many successes in destroying the image of God in man – the crown of earthly creation, who in his perfection is “little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8:6). What has become of the God-like soul of man, created for eternal blessedness? Today man is possessed by many demons and reduced to the utmost degree of degradation. Like the demoniac who “wore no clothes,” modern sodomites are not ashamed to parade half-naked. The Lord says of the demoniac: “He lived not in a house but among the tombs.” Are not our apartments and homes today such tombs, where, instead of thoughts of God and prayer, demonic images from television and computers take up residence?
One would think that modern man, corrupted in flesh and spirit, would immediately fall at the feet of Jesus Christ, begging to be healed of demonic possession. After all, a single word from the Savior is enough, and the spirit of evil will depart from him forever. Yet what do we hear? “Depart from us! What have You to do with me? I beg You, do not torment me!” That is, like the Gadarene demoniac, man does not recognize his deadly condition and does not wish to part with his demonic slavery.
Today the devil does not work on us with crude force, but gradually, step by step, poisoning our soul with the venom of sinful passions, thereby undermining and weakening our will. Consider, for example, the wretched person possessed by the demonic affliction of drunkenness. A drunkard, by his very appearance, already resembles a demoniac, for he no longer gives account of his actions. He, too, needs restraining chains, since in his drunken state he is capable of any terrible crime. The drunkard loses every human likeness, does not realize his disastrous state, and does not wish to fight against the passion that is ruinous to his soul – for it is written: Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Yet the drunkenness continues.
Let us look closely at the life around us. Do we not hear today the very plea of the Gadarene inhabitants who lost their herd of swine: “Depart from us – with Your law, with Your teaching, with Your reminder of sin and hell; depart from our accustomed sinful way of life”? In discussions about modernity and freedom, we often hear the voice of a corrupt and impure heart that cannot bear to behold divine purity and truth.
Sin always wages war against holiness; the flesh seeks to enslave the soul – in other words, sin and the flesh strive to drive Christ out of their territory. When the Apostle Peter, in repentant prayer, said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8), he did so out of a sense of his own unworthiness, not daring to draw near to the holiness of Jesus Christ, desiring only from afar to gaze upon Him with reverence, beating his breast like the publican who stood at a distance, trembling and weeping over his sins. The Gadarenes, however, had no desire to change their sinful life, in which open lawlessness had become habitual – even the raising of swine in defiance of the Law of Moses – and they wished only to remove Christ from their midst, to forget Him forever, so that they might continue serving earthly passions and sinful attachments – those Gadarene swine. The presence of Christ’s holiness beside them disturbed their spiritual slumber. They had no need of the Word of God that reminds them of conscience, of retribution for sin, of God’s law and spiritual purity. No – it was better for them to live with the swine than with Christ. Hence their request, so insulting to the Lord: “Depart from us!” In essence, this very request is visible in the attitudes and actions of many people today.
Our saving refuge lies open before everyone’s eyes: it is the Church of God, and everyone who wishes may receive in her healing of soul, peace, and salvation. In the Book of Proverbs it is written: The Wisdom of God has built herself a house and cries aloud – “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” (Prov. 9:1, 4).
Faith is the expression of a healthy state of the soul. Burning and steadfast faith in God is the natural, saving condition of our soul. Yes, it is not easy; it is at once a gift of God (Gal. 5:22) and a human labor. On the other hand, unbelief or weak faith is an unnatural phenomenon; it is a sickness of the soul, a moral sickness, a crime against the will of God. Unbelief is deadly to the soul.
We see today that after the era of unbelief and atheism in the twentieth century, after spiritual wanderings, after bold challenges hurled at God, after proud declarations of faith in man and human reason – many modern Gadarenes who once rejected God are now returning to Him in anguish and despair, with a spiritual thirst. Today’s man, like the prodigal son of the Gospel, after the atheistic spiritual famine in a far country where he tended swine and shared their trough, after the tormenting emptiness and longing for the Father, desires to return to his Father’s house, so that, like the healed demoniac, he may sit at the feet of Jesus. And to those who have been healed of the demonic affliction of unbelief, our High Priest Jesus Christ commands that they remain among the Gadarenes who are still unhealed, in order to proclaim by word and deed the power and glory of the Savior.
May God help us to be healed of sin and to abide in eternal communion with Christ, glorifying and thanking Him for His boundless mercy toward us. Amen.