5th Sunday of Mathew - Our everyday demons
God causes the lonely to live at home; He brings out those who are bound with chains (Psa 68:6)
Dear Beloved,
I am not sure if you noticed but if you go into a Blockbuster store and try to select a movie, more than 50% of the movies contain one of the words: blood, murder, death, fear, demon, and many other scary combinations. Why do we have such a morbid predilection for all that is bad, ugly and disgusting. I still have to figure this out. IN many of these movies we see scary demons trying to scare us as dragons, goats, fabulous creatures that make our hair stay straight up! But is this really the work of the devil, if this is so why don't we see them in our daily lives? Why don't we encounter or hear any of the stories some sick minds write in their screenplays.
As the fathers of the Church teach us the work of the demons is more subtle than what we see on TV. The true work of the devil is to trick us and to tempt us into sin and disobedience. They have no power over us other than increasing the level of temptation. They have no power to do anything unless we accept them into our lives. But if we accept their temptations today, and tomorrow, and again and again we end up possessed, enslaved to our own sins.
The legions of demons we see today lurking in the two demoniacs are actually our sins that we allowed to enter into our lives until they rule it to the point we cannot escape it. Possessed by our sins we walk in the world like the naked, without the glory that God gave us at the beginning of the world. The classic image of Adam and Eve in heaven is that of two naked people wearing nothing but the proverbial grapevine leaf. In some Orthodox icons however we see Adam and Eve fully dressed wearing royal garments. Some may say this is the Church trying to censor the icons, but actually this is done on purpose to show that before the fall Adam and Eve were dressed in the grace of God, that although their bodies were naked they were clothed in the unmatched adornment of the glory of God.
Through sin this garments of incorruptions have been lost and men found themselves without clothes, wandering among the graves. The graves now have a different symbolism. A psychological quote says that "people like people like themselves", so if we are dead, spiritually speaking, we don't like to live among the living, but with the dead, with other people who, like us are possessed, and naked and have lost the true life. "I am counted with those who go down to the Pit; I am like a feeble man; free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You remember no more"; (Psa 88:4-5). Living among them we get used to the tranquility of our luxurious life and continue to dwell in the idleness of death. Even if we try to escape our earthly possessions keep us tied to the world as with iron chains, so we cannot move and experience, even for a minute, the true life into Christ our God.
Continuing to leave like this will only increase our pain, will only tie us even tighter to the ground until we suffocate and cannot breathe anymore. We need a Savior to free us from the bond of sin to let us breathe again, to run in the plain field of light embracing life with our whole being. "Hear me quickly, O Lord; my spirit fails; do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the Pit". (Psa 143:7)
If we continue to live in the dirt like the pigs the demons enter into us and we will end up in drowning, like the swine today. The pigs represent the sins of the people of Israel, because they were not allowed to raise pigs, according to the Law, being unclean animals. So the Lord allowed the demons to enter into the swine and kill them to show to the people once again that they should not do this. It was nothing else but yet another warning for the upholding of the Law. And what the people do instead of repenting: they ask Him to leave!
God is a very gentle Person. He does not force anything on anyone; He lets us decide what we want to do: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me."(Rev 3:20). What is easier than opening the door? Yet we choose many times not to trust in the One that knocks, to put our faith in something or someone else and shut the door in the face of the Lord asking Him to leave, as the Gadareans did today.
We love our sins, the pleasures of life that we indulge in every minute and we don't want anyone to mess with it. We are afraid that if we let Christ in He will make all this disappear, He will force us to fast, to give everything to the poor, to loose all our earthly possessions. What we don't understand however is that by giving up all this we actually gain so much more, because the heart of man is where his possessions are. If our possessions are on earth so is our heart and desire, if our possessions are in heaven so will be our soul rejoicing in the Lord.
Christ does not force Himself into our lives; He is not cleaning our souls without us wanting it. He shows us however our mistakes through different means: loss of property (like today's example with the swine), sickness, loss of family members or friends. He gives us the warning; He gives us signs that we should read in order to change what is wicked in our lives for the good. But most of times we rebel against God and say: God why me, why my kid, why my friend you are a mean God, I don't want to know you. So we blame everything on God without trying to understand His message.
Understanding God's message is to change our lives, to enter into a state of metanoia, of profound change and rediscover deep into us our image as children of God. One that receives God's message is transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit and becomes a new man that understands the priorities in life, understands the nothing is durable, nothing is permanent,: no wealth, no power, no family, no friendship is forever, but only the Kingdom of God is everlasting and only there everything we love will be with us forever.
We always try to give to our families all that is good into this world: best houses, best food, best clothes, best education, but many times we forget to give them the most precious possession we could offer: the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Only giving them this unmatched gift we ensure that we will be with them forever. Only if we save our souls and help them save their souls we ensure an eternity of joy and communion with all our loved ones.
Let us therefore think carefully before we cast Christ out of our lives for the reasons of the world, welcome Him with open arms to free us from the possession of sin, take us out of the graveyard we live in and show us the true life which is in communion with Him, the source of life. Amin.