Orthodox Christian Church of the Holy Spirit
Orthodox Church in America - Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania
145 N. Kern St Beavertown PA, 17813
Eighteenth Sunday after Great and Holy Pentecost

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“And they came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.”

During the liturgical year of the Church, we actually hear this story three times.  Why that is I can’t exactly say, though knowing the Church and trusting her judgment there is good reason for us to hear this account of the Gadarene demoniac.  The fact that it is assigned three times throughout the year tells me that the Church sees in this account of demon-possession something important – very important – that we should pay heed to.  Of the three Gospel accounts found in Matthew (Mt. 8:28-34), Mark (Mk. 5:1-20), and Luke, it is St. Matthew who uses an economy of words to convey the message that Sts. Mark and Luke both spell out in greater detail.  St. Matthew, however, alone reports there were two demon-possessed souls “exceedingly fierce, so that no man might pass that way.”  What Sts. Mark and Luke capture in their lengthier accounts, St. Matthew does so by doubling up, and thus multiplying, the intensity of the dire situation faced by our Lord.  The Fathers suggest that St. Matthew’s account with two demoniacs doesn’t contradict Sts. Mark and Luke who each speak of one.  The Fathers suggest that of the two reported by St. Matthew, one was far more fierce and far more notorious than the other, and that’s the one focused on by the other two Evangelists.  

Every year around this time when the Western Church is gearing up for All Saints Day the world is gearing up for Halloween, which, if you remember the history of All Saints, the two are connected.  Halloween is All-Hallow’s Eve – the eve of All-Hallows or All Saints – when the veil between the living and the departed is drawn very thin.  Perhaps, then, it is providential that at least every year at this time we hear from St. Luke about this most fierce demoniac who was possessed, not by one demon or devil, mind you, but by a legion (hence his name when asked by Jesus), which is several thousand demons! 

The state of this poor soul, to say the least, is absolutely terrifying, making Halloween kids’ play!  The demons so controlled this man that he was de-ranged, forced to go about stark naked, and could not dwell among the people of his community but was compelled to live in tombs and graves, thus underscoring for us as is humanly possible the utter deplorable physical and spiritual condition of this man who is powerless in their grip.  Let us be unequivocal here, beloved: the devil or evil one is real, demons are real, demon-possession is real.  This is not a campfire story of a quaint but highly primitive people.  Fallen angels are around us who seek to lead us astray and, when given the opportunity by a soul’s dereliction, will take up residence in that soul.  Granted, this may be on the extreme of spiritual things, but it is nonetheless a reality.  St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus that Christians are to “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles [schemings] of the devil” (Ep. 6:11), while St. Peter in his Epistle summons us to “be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”  And this Apostle strongly counsels us to “resist him, steadfast in the Faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Pe. 5:8-9).  This is how we are to deal with the archenemy of our bodies and souls, even as we pray in the Our Father that our God and Father might “deliver us from the evil one,” and crush him under our feet in due time (Rm. 16:20).  For our warfare is a spiritual warfare and it is real in this world filled with Halloween costumes and masqueraders.  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” says the Apostle, “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ep. 6:12).  Only by the mighty saving arm of the crucified and risen God Himself can we and do we as His Church overcome the evil one.  “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ep. 6:10).  For Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God, born of the Ever-Virgin Mary, has been revealed for this purpose: “that He might destroy the works of the devil” (Hb. 2:14-15; 1 Jn. 3:8).         

What really spoke to me this time around or caught my spiritual eye was the phrase used by both St. Luke and St. Mark – that the healed demoniac was now “clothed and in his right mind.”  It seems to me that what this story exposes for us is that despite the façade we all wear (some of us are more apparent than others), if we could see beneath that covering we would find the real spiritual condition we all have inherited in the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  All of us are injured just like the man in the parable of the Good Samaritan who, if you recall, was brutally attacked by brigands, beaten and battered within an inch of his life, stripped of his clothing, and thrown into the ditch all crumpled up in a heap, left to die alone, isolated and hidden away (Lk. 10:25-37).  This is our spiritual condition despite the facades we all wear.  St. Paul says it this way: that we were all dead in our trespasses even when we thought of ourselves as alive (Ep. 2:1-10).  Like those persons in the YouTube videos entitled, “This man/woman is already dead.  He/she just doesn’t know it yet,” so were we when we “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”  Once we, too, were like that, says the Apostle, counted among the living dead, that is, those who are spiritually dead but just don’t know it yet, when we lived by the lusts or passions of the flesh, obeying the desires of our flesh and mind, that is to say, our passions and our thoughts.  We were without God and hope in this existence, children of wrath, which is spiritual death (Ep. 2:12).  This is our spiritual condition if we are without Christ, without His Church, without Holy Baptism and the Life-giving, Life-sustaining Holy Eucharist.

When the devil overthrew Adam and Eve in the Fall, they became – and we with them as their progeny – like wild, untamed, irrational beasts . . . . . . bestial, which is most vivid in the stories like the one in the Gospel today.  Stripped of our facades, what is revealed is not a pretty picture and Satan, who is directly behind this – is likewise exposed!  We who were clothed in the light of God became darkness.  We who were created for immortality like unto God suddenly became mortal, vulnerable to the corruption of death and sin all through the “envy of the devil” (WS 1:13-14; 2:23-24)!  We were and had been created by God, not for the animal kingdom, but for God and His Kingdom, to be of the highest order.  We alone of all creatures bear His image and are made capable by His grace to attain to His divine likeness, thus distinguishing us from irrational beasts and brutes which are more akin to the demoniac in today’s Gospel (Gn. 1:26-27).  We were intended for Paradise and for the most exceedingly intimate communion with God.  “What is man,” asks the psalmist,

that Thou art mindful of him?  Or the son of man , that Thou visitest him?  Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honor hast Thou crowned him, and Thou has set him over the works of Thy hands.  All things hast Thou subjected under his feet, sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, . . . . (Ps. 8:1-9).           

 

But, the one whom God had made higher than all creatures, the one who shared in the divine enterprise, was himself cast down by one of the fallen angels, even the devil himself.  The Fall, beloved, wreaked great havoc throughout the entire cosmos, but it was not irreversible.  But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Who became for us our Good Samaritan – mine and yours – to save us, to restore us, to sanctify and heal us, to cast down our ancient enemy by the blood of His Cross and His Resurrection from the dead!  Trampling down death by His most glorious Death, our Lord now bestows Life upon all in the tombs (Paschal Troparion) – tombs of our own choosing and making, and those who dwell in the dust of the earth awaiting the cry of the angels to rouse them from their slumber (1 Cr. 15:52; 1 Th. 4:13-18).  “But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), . . . .” (Rm. 5:6-11; Ep. 2:1-10; Ts. 2:11; 3:4). 

What the Fathers teach us is this: our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ came to make us human beings again.  Does that surprise you?  This is the height from which we have fallen!  This is the beauty of the demoniac, now restored by the hand of Jesus Christ, sitting at His feet, “clothed, and in his right mind.”  He has been restored to the dignity of being a man made in the image of God and capable of partaking of the divine nature (2 Cr. 3:17-18; 5:17; Ep. 4:24; Co. 3:10; 2 Pe. 1:4).  He sits before Jesus Christ with his eyes firmly fixed on Him Who is Light and salvation.  He sits, clothed with the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness bestowed by the Son of God from on high (Is. 61:10).  In essence, he has now put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rm. 13:14; Ga. 3:27; 4:4-7), the Son of God, Who has come in the flesh of broken humanity to restore us to the authenticity of Paradise we once enjoyed before the Fall.  To be truly human, therefore, beloved, is to be truly in communion with God the Father through His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.  He comes to elevate us, to raise us back up, to regenerate us with His Light and Life, to heal the fractured and fragmented image of God in us and to help us to attain to the likeness of God – our original creation!  He comes to breathe once more His Spirit – the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life (Nicene Creed) – into us so that man may once more become a living soul, even as Sacred Scripture teaches (Gn. 2:7; Jn. 20:22; Ac. 2:1-47).      

There is a famous, though oftentimes misquoted, quote from St. Irenaeus of Lyons, one of my favorite saints because he’s so early in the Church and himself sat at the feet of St. Polycarp who had been catechized by St. John the Theologian and Evangelist.  The holy Bishop of Lyons once wrote, “For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God” (Against Heresies IV.20.7).  “’Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’” (Beatitudes).  The glory of God is a man made fully alive once more, restored to the authenticity of Paradise, by knowing the God Who created him, redeemed him, and Who sanctifies him (Jn. 17:3).  St. Irenaeus goes on to assure us, “For if the manifestation of God which is made by means of creation, affords life to all living in the earth, much more does that revelation of the Father which comes through the Word [made flesh], give Life to those who see God.”  May God grant to us sinners that which an ancient Irish hymn longs for:

          Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

          Naught be all else to me save that Thou art,

          Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

          Waking or sleeping, Thy Presence my light.

 

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  Indeed He is risen!

 

PROPERS:

 

2 Cr. 9:6-11

Lk. 8:26-39     

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