In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
How often, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do we throw ourselves into our wants and desires? “I want that drink, that partner, that fantasy, that pleasure.” And all these are for a fix of dopamine—a chemical released by our neurons to reward pleasurable behaviour—to brighten our everyday. Or, in contrast, how often do we throw ourselves into worldly pursuits? To earn more money, to get more power, to stockpile more resources? “These are necessary to have security in this world!” we protest: “I must do it, it is required.”
A man brings his son before the Lord. The boy has had this spirit of infirmity from childhood: “he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.” This spirit stops him from living: he cannot speak and it casts him down to the earth to which he will return—he is in a living death.
And in this narrative I try to place myself. I know I am not Christ, but perhaps I am one of the disciples who try their best but cannot quite succeed, whom I can use as justification for my own failings. Or perhaps I am the father bringing my son to the Lord, recognising my own failings but still trusting in His power. But there is another: I am the boy. For I throw myself into the fire of pleasure and “into the pounding surf of worldly cares,” as St Theophylact of Ochrid describes. I have allowed demonic powers to overwhelm me and I have become dumb, unable to stand for myself and I am thrown to the floor grinding my teeth and have become rigid. I have given up my dignity, turned my back on my worth as I eke out an existence culminating in death: in fact, I am half there already.
And I am brought to others, sages and wise-men, but they cannot heal me. Only Christ can heal, only Christ is Saviour. So I am brought before the Lord and He casts out the demon. And in the first instance I appear dead, because to the world I have become dead. But Jesus takes me by the hand and lifts me up—through baptism and chrismation, through confession—and I arise. And now I am truly alive. But what will be my next step, will I throw myself back into the fire of pleasures or the water of world cares? Or will I stand on my own two feet as a human person?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord liberates us from the power of demons but we must stand without letting ourselves be thrown one way or the other. We must remember the words of the Lord, recorded elsewhere,
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.
— Matthew 12:43–45
How then are we to protect ourselves? The demon is cast out, we are freed by Christ. We may protect ourselves through the Church, by remaining close to Christ and inviting into our hearts the Holy Spirit who will prevent the demon’s return. And we do this through prayer, through fasting, through attending the services, by receiving the Mysteries, by living a Christian life close to the Church and therefore close to Christ.
Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, reject worldly pleasures as ends in themselves and worldly cares as necessities. They may have their place, but we must, we have to, “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) And then, in our joys and our laments, in our rejoicing and in our suffering, in our living and in our dying, we would be with the Lord and show ourselves by our faithfulness that we would be inheritors of eternal Life.
That we may offer true glory, honour and worship to our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who frees us from the demonic powers seeking to do us evil, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, Amen.
Brethren, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore to himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
— Hebrews 6:13–20
At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he had this?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.
— Mark 9:17–31