“How are you fallen from heaven O Lucifer…who rose up in the morning! He who sends for all the nations is crushed to the earth…For you said in your mind, “I will ascend into heaven: I will place my throne above the stars of heaven. I will sit on a lofty mountain, on the lofty mountains toward the north. I will ascend above the clouds; I will be like the Most-High. But now, you shall descend to Hades…to the foundations of the earth.” (Isaiah 14: 12-14)
These words come from the book of Isaiah depicting the fall of Satan and those fallen angels who followed him into the depths of Hades itself. For so many, including even sadly many Orthodox Christians, the world often dismisses the reality of beings like demons. This past weekend during Halloween, there were no doubt many in our country who dressed as them and imitating them…without truly understanding or respecting their reality and the hold that demons have on all of us. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, demons are absolutely real and they surround us like vultures waiting too crash down on those who show weakness in their spiritual life.
Today in the Gospel, we are given perhaps what is the most clear example of what demonic possession truly does look like, in the story of the Gadarene Demoniac. We are told about a human being who was so disturbed, that He spent his days and nights wandering around naked in the tombs outside of the city. There were times when the villagers would shackle him and put him under guard, but the powerful demon inside of him would snap the chains and cause him flee into the wilderness. After years of tormenting this poor man and literally ruining his life, the demon comes face to face with Christ. That cunning deceiver did something that many in the world do not do, and immediately recognized the power and reality of God: “I beg you…do not torment me!”, it screamed in anguish. “Allow me not to go into the abyss, but rather to go into that heard of swine.”
Our Lord allowed it to happen and the herd ran off of a cliff and drowned into the sea. Christ allowed this all to happen in front of many witnesses, not because he had anything against pigs. He wanted to give the world an extremely important message: The only thing demons can do is destroy. Demons cannot love. They cannot lift us up. They cannot fill our lives with light or life. Their only aim is to destroy.
Relationships are destroyed when the demon of anger enters into our thoughts and causes us to lash out at someone verbally with shallow words. Bodies and minds are destroyed when the demon of gluttony tricks us into overindulging in food and entertainment Marriages and relationships are destroyed by the demon of desire, which causes men and women to abuse themselves and to destroy God Given Love through Adultery. The demons are relentless, and their power comes by way of deceiving us and our thoughts, so that we walk away from God.
St. Silouan the Athonite tells us: “It is impossible for the mind to not be troubled by these thoughts. But if we exert ourselves, it is within our power to either accept them and give them our attention, or to expel them. Their coming is not within our power to control…but their expulsion is.”
We may not be able to stop the thoughts or temptations to enter into our mind, but because Christ has given us power over the demons (unlike Legion in the Gospel today) we absolutely have the power to drive them away. Christ showed us this power! He gives it to us when we are Baptized and Chrismated in the Church! But there is this attitude that often stops us from using it, and it is the same attitude of the villagers at the end of the reading this morning.
After the devil is driven into the herd of swine, and the young man who was freed is seen sitting at the feet of Christ, the men and women of the nearby village came out and immediately asked Christ to leave. Why? He did great things for this young man! He offered them all a way to defeat the demons in their own lives! But like so many of us do, even though we know that we now have the power to control them by living a life like Christ, we act as those villagers and tell our Lord: “No…I’m good with where I’m at.”
How often do we shrink back from really trying to live a 100% truly Christian Life because we get to a point where we say “If I really want to go through this, I have to change some things.
“I’m not ready to quit my job because the things that I am doing or the things that my company supports are wrong.
I’m not ready to change my views on abortion, or racial equality, or splitting up families, to match what our Lord teaches about the importance of every human life.
I’m not ready to accept and love my neighbor who thinks a different way than I do.
I’m comfortable where I am at, so go away with that nonsense that I don’t agree with or want in my life, and allow me to live in ignorance.”
Dear ones, listening and indulging in these lives of deception will lead us, and everyone we hold dear, to a life of destruction at the hands of the devil himself. Our Lord did not come here to allow us to be prey to the evil one, He came here to heal us. Christ came to lift us up from destruction…but it requires of us our entire life! 100% effort in all things! As we say in the Litany “Commending our whole life (not just the part that we think is good enough) unto Christ our God.”
Let us not allow the demons of our passions to destroy us or those who surround us, but rather suppress them with the sign of the cross, and with Christ permeating throughout our entire life…Amen.