The Gadarene Demoniac

 (Luke 8:26-39)

In today’s Holy Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples sailed to the country of the Gadarenes on the opposite shore from Galilee. When our Lord entered into this land, He came upon a man who was demon possessed – who went about naked among the tombs. This man was so fierce and so feared that he was kept in chains and shackles, bonds which he often broke through in his ferocity and demonically fueled strength. As soon as our Lord came near, the man possessed by the demons cried out, ‘What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!’ Christ confronted the demons possessing the man and this legion of demons could not bear the authority and light of our Lord… at His command they were forced to flee into a herd of pigs, which then went crashing headlong off the cliffs and into the water.

It is a dramatic scene and one that conveys to us a number of spiritual truths that we will do well to recognize and remember. These truths include: the reality of the spiritual world, the nature and inhabitants of that world, and the authority and victory of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The first lesson we must take from today’s Holy Gospel is the reality of the spiritual world – a world which we, in our fallen human nature and in our spiritual immaturity and blindness, rarely see or comprehend. St Theophan the Recluse stated that "The spiritual life is such a realm into which the wisdom of this world does not penetrate."  Nevertheless, whether we perceive it or not, that spiritual world does indeed exist and you and I will spend the better part of our existence in that spiritual realm… Our earthly life here is but a blink of an eye in the context of eternity. And yet we pull our hair out over the most trifle preoccupations and concerns – as if this world and our earthly existence were all there is to life. If we believe in the life beyond the grave, wouldn’t it make sense to understand it and to prepare ourselves for that reality in which we will spend, by far, the greater part of our existence? Indeed it does make sense and indeed we should occupy ourselves more fully with such spiritual pursuits.

But what else does today’s Gospel reveal to us? It shows us that the spiritual realm is a battleground where there is good and evil, where there is the angelic and the demonic. We have to be aware of this… It is all too common for people to naively believe that anything ‘spiritual’ is somehow worthy of our interest and attention. There is a saying in English: ‘All that glitters is not gold’. Just because something is ‘spiritual’ does not mean that it is beneficial for us. We need to have discernment, and we need to be familiar with the teachings of our holy Orthodox faith which help to navigate us in the right direction spiritually.

From my conversations with all of you, from hearing your confessions and sharing with you the struggles of your life – I know I do not need to convince any of you of the existence of the demons and of their oppressive and darkening influence upon us and upon the world. We all feel a sense of this gathering storm that is happening in the world today. It reminds me of the words of a profound and prophetic poem by William Butler Yeats entitled ‘The Second Coming’. Here is the first stanza of that poem…

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

What a frighteningly accurate depiction this prophesizes… this description of the loss of innocence and the tightening grip of evil is seen by us in the headlines of our daily news. May God have mercy on us!

And yet… let us never neglect the third lesson given to us in today’s Gospel reading. We spoke about the reality of the spiritual world and the nature of the good and evil that occupies that spiritual dimension. The third lesson is about the decisive victory and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who conquers all evil and sends it to flee before His presence.

We must never despair when confronted with evil, whether in the headlines of the news or encountered within our own lives. Christ is victorious – and the demons know it. As Orthodox Christians we have been given a mighty power in the sign of the Cross. Apostle Paul spoke of it in today’s Epistle saying: ‘God forbid I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ The Cross is our hope and is our defense against all darkness. We should make the sign of the Cross over ourselves upon waking, before lying down to sleep, and at any and all times when we wish to fortify and protect ourselves spiritually.

There is a beautiful and powerful prayer to the venerable Cross which we pray before sleep each night and all Orthodox Christians should strive to memorize and invoke this prayer whenever they encounter evil in their lives. The prayer is as follows: ‘Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; and let those who hate Him flee from before His presence. As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; and as wax melts from the presence of fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and say in gladness: Hail, most precious and lifegiving Cross of the Lord, for Thou drivest away the demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified on thee, Who went down to hell and trampled on the power of the devil, and gave us thee, His venerable Cross, for driving away all enemies. O most precious and lifegiving Cross of the Lord, help me with our holy Lady, the Virgin Mother of God, and with all the saints throughout the ages. Amen.’

May God be with us and may we be of good cheer, for as Christ has promised us, He has overcome the world.