Gadarene Demoniac 2025 Fr Nicholas Carr

His cross and follow me and for most of us this

is a struggle. We tend to be selfish instead

of selfless and we think of ourselves first though

we want to love our neighbor and we would like

to be unmercenaries to a certain degree anyway

and our eyes though they remain on ourself, on

our own needs, on our own wants. And so the question

for us to ponder today, for each one of us, is

how do I become selfless and love my neighbor?

How can I do that? Today's gospel from Luke will

help us explore this more. Jesus arrives by boat

in the gatherings and encounters a man who had

demons. They tormented him so badly that he had

no clothes and lived in the tombs. And Jesus

commanded those demons to come out of that man,

and he sent them into swine and into a herd of

pigs. And those pigs ran violently down a steep

slope into a lake and drowned. here for us today

is twofold. One, demons are commanded by Christ

and they have no power before him. Our Lord and

God and Savior Jesus Christ is Lord over all

of creation. Everything is subject to his authority.

Trust in Christ our Lord and do not be afraid.

And the second lesson, which is more directly

relevant to today's message, is that in order

to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves. The

Gadarenes, they saw miraculous healing. They

saw demons commanded by the Lord. His power was

evident. One might expect everybody there to

welcome him and to fall down before him. Before

the Lord Jesus. But instead. They ask him to

leave. Please just go away. Why? They were afraid.

And they did not want to change. And this gets

in the way of us being selfless. If we're selfish.

And we do not want to change. They raised swine.

They were forbidden by the Mosaic law to do so.

But they did. and they knew that it went against

that law, what was their priority in life? It

was to make a profit, not God, not his law, not

following where he would lead, but their swine.

And so, how do I become selfless and love my

neighbor like the unmercenaries? Well, We must

be like the man who came to Christ healed, demons

cast out, and he comes before him and humbly

says, Lord, I want to follow you and go where

you want. The Lord told him to do something different,

to go to his family. But the desire of his heart

was to follow the Lord. We must be willing to

give up raising swine, whatever that sin is in

each of us. that we need to get away from. We

need to leave selfishness behind, be willing

to change, to strive to keep Christ's commandments,

to determine in our hearts, to seek to draw close

to God, and to do this, we must learn to deny

ourselves. Archimandrite Simeon Kragiopoulos

says of self -denial, There is no other way to

be of the Lord and for the Lord to have faith

in you and to bless you. You must deny yourself.

This is the renouncing of the self. It's the

whole assesis of the spiritual life. The great

evil that man now experiences because of the

fall. is that man is locked inside himself. He

holds a high opinion of himself. If you wish

to make a good start, guard this phrase, deny

yourself. 2 Timothy 3 .1 -2 reads, This know

also that in the last days perilous times will

come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.

John 12 .25 says, He that loveth his life shall

lose it, and he that hateth his life in this

world shall keep it unto life eternal. So are

you ready? Are you ready to move away from a

self -centered life of worldly pursuits, to give

up raising swine, to move away from self -love?

and truly learn how to love your neighbor, there

is only one way to do it, and that is to follow

Christ, to prioritize your faith in him as more

important than anything else in this world, to

learn to deny yourself and to humbly seek God's

will. And you can only do these things with God's

presence and help. So the first step is to draw

close to God, to leave the world behind you,

to come to church, to confess your sins, to take

holy communion, to pray here together with your

brothers and sisters in Christ and also at home,

and to read the holy scriptures, to prioritize

your faith, to deny Do this and be filled with

the Holy Spirit and then God's love will flow

through you. And with the Holy Spirit flowing

through you, then you will be able to truly love

your neighbor the way God has called us all to

do. So let us prioritize our faith and seek first

the kingdom of heaven. May God work in all our

lives and sanctify us, for he is holy. Glory

to Jesus Christ.