In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
There are those today who think religion is about “gods of the gaps.” They would presume ancient peoples to be primitive, to be superstitious, to be backward while they themselves are at the peak of human understanding, human endeavour: ancient people, they might say, declared there to be a god behind anything they did not understand. And since our scientific understanding has grown, the “gaps” have become smaller and gods, along with religion, have been pushed out. In their minds Scientism, atheism, has won and all other religions are proven wrong.
What is all the more tragic, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is there are Christians today who themselves seem embarrassed by what they would perceive to be the supernatural aspects of the Gospel, the fantastical, the impossible. And when faced with today’s reading they might say, “he was ill, he was not in his right mind, he had depression, or anxiety, or schizophrenia, or some other kind of mental disorder—the Christians of the first century just didn’t understand, Christ didn’t understand, mental illnesses as we do: this was a healing in the way Christ healed others of their illnesses.” But the Evangelist is clear, this was unlike other healings recorded, the man was possessed by demons.
And I squirm and I am uncomfortable with this; I want to ally myself with Scientism, despite its incompatibility with the Gospel, and I want to deny the existence of anything fantastical. But this position is unsustainable: if there were no demons pulling us down there would be no need for a Saviour to raise us up, if sin were merely a result of human behaviour then there would be no chance of repentance, if demons do not exist then God has created Hell as a place for human misery. (cf. Matthew 25:41) And so, if Christ is risen, if we have been set free from our unjust slavery to sin, if we have been brought to eternal Life, then demons exist too.
Many might think the presence of pigs, of swine, indicates this to be a Gentile population, yet the Lord only reluctantly speaks to those outside the Jewish nation: (e.g. Matthew 10:5–6, 15:24) rather this would appear to be a Jewish population who have left aside the Law of God and are content to raise unclean pigs. And the demoniac has too, in a way not here described, left the Law and followed another way. And leaving aside the Law, even the law written in his heart, (see Romans 2:14–15) he has placed something else before himself, between God and him, and become possessed by his idols. The demons had the power to possess him, once invited in, but could not kill him: nevertheless, he had lost the dignity and beauty bestowed on our race and lived naked among the tombs.
And the Lord comes to him; the power of the demons is naught before their Creator. He converses with them not for their sake but for ours, that we might recognise the great power he has with his Word. The Lord comes and immediately sends out the demons from the man and he is found, “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” And where we serve the Liturgy we bring Christ into that place and the demonic powers lurking are immediately cast out and are sent to the Abyss. And we, in the words of the Apostle, by joining ourselves to Christ, proclaim too that,
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Hebrews 2:14–15
and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
The Lord, in his love for you and his love for me, frees all who come before him from demonic power. And in our world full of evils this is of vital importance: that I come before him and allow him to free me and that I bring others so,
as many as receive him, to them he [gives] the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name: who [are] born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12–13
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do not be scandalised when we say demons exist but know that Christ has defeated them and frees you, frees me and frees all who come to him from their power. And this our Faith—the Faith of Freedom, the Faith of Joy, the Faith of Truth—is the Faith which our world needs: we are not being led to death but offer the world Life, eternal Life, Life without end. Let us accept this Freedom, let us live this Freedom, let us proclaim this Freedom, let us invite into this Freedom all whom we love—the entire world.
To our crucified and risen Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who frees us from all demonic powers, be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
— Galatians 1:11–19
At that time, as Jesus arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
— Luke 8:26–39