We Must Conquer Ourselves

A sermon by Fr. Vladimir of Znamenskoye

Today, in the important Gospel reading, we heard how the Lord healed the demon-possessed men who lived in the city cemetery and terrified the whole area. No one could pass by them — everyone was afraid, because they screamed so terribly. They were dreadful demoniacs.

And so the Lord, passing by, saw them and with one word cast the demons out of them. We know there were a great many of them. And these demons asked to enter the pigs. The Lord allowed them. These pigs, possessed by the demons, rushed and threw themselves into the sea — they all drowned.

The herdsmen who were tending these herds of pigs were horrified and ran to tell all the inhabitants what had happened: that the pigs had all perished, and what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And the whole city came out to meet Christ.

And here is what happened. Seeing the miracle that the Lord had performed, they paid more attention to the fact that the herd of pigs had perished — that they had lost their profit. Because in that region the local people made their living by raising and selling pigs.

Even seeing what had happened to the demoniacs — that they had been healed, become calm, and now one could safely go to the cemetery — this did not touch them. Why? Because their hearts had become hardened. They thought only of earthly things. Even that Divine light which had visited them — that grace which had descended upon these two hopeless men — went unnoticed by them. They thought only of the earth, and therefore they said to the Lord: “Depart from our borders.”

This is an example for us.

We know many such examples. Even from the very beginning, when persecutions against Christians began, the first martyrs who accepted death from the Roman rulers refused to renounce their faith and offer sacrifice to idols. They were subjected to terrible tortures: their skin was flayed, their flesh was torn with hooks down to the bone. Yet at that very moment the Lord healed them. Sometimes they were thrown into prison in such a condition, thinking they would die by morning, but in the morning they came out completely healthy, without any wounds.

And many pagans, seeing these miracles of healing, accepted Christ and the Christian faith. But the persecutors and executioners, seeing these miracles, not only did not soften, but became even harsher, applied even more terrible tortures, or ordered their heads to be cut off, considering it all sorcery. In doing so, they opened for themselves a direct road to hell.

And we see what is happening now. Terrible things are happening now too. People are undergoing some kind of transformation into beasts, to be honest.

I was recently at a meeting. I knew that all kinds of atrocities happen mainly in war. But at this meeting they said that in Ukraine they have now made a kind of computer murder game. What is the point of this game? It is interactive. Fighters at the front line set up drones loaded with various munitions, and through Starlink you can buy a session and fly this drone — destroy equipment, a person, or whatever. You pay money, no matter where in the world you are, you can “play,” pay, and destroy a person.

This is how much people’s minds have been darkened. Such a terrible war is going on now. Earlier, even during the World War, after battles there was always a pause, and people from both sides would come to the battlefield to collect their wounded and dead. Now this practically does not happen. Very rarely do we exchange wounded. And our guys go out to retrieve our killed soldiers — and they are simply shot.

That is why this war is so terrible. We see how people are turning into such petty, degraded beings. This darkening of hearts is now very strong.

And unfortunately, we too are participating in this process. Sometimes we come to the temple, confess, cleanse ourselves, but when we come home we start swearing again.

I tell many people, and now I tell all of you: this is spiritual warfare, this is a war that is going on everywhere — not only there in Ukraine, but here, and most importantly here, which we are losing. Why? Because we all, the majority of people, from the least to the greatest, are now constantly swearing.

Imagine: in the whole country of 140–150 million, practically everyone swears. What kind of help from God can we expect, what mercy, if we all allow ourselves to swear? We often forget our morning and evening prayers, we very rarely say the Jesus Prayer, we practically do not read the Gospel.

We have lost our priorities. We are not going in the right direction, yet we want everything to be good.

We are all great strategists on the couch; we all know how to run the country. But I say again: we must look inside ourselves. We must not judge the authorities, nor our neighbors, near or far, nor anyone else. We must look inside ourselves: what have we done to correct ourselves, so that the world may become better.

St. Seraphim of Sarov said: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.” And what are we doing? We are destroying everything instead.

If only we would all come to our senses, become honest, and have tears of repentance. We ask God’s forgiveness automatically, without sincere repentance. We do not realize our sins; we have grown together with them.

This freezing of our hearts and souls is a terrible thing that will lead to nothing good.

Our task, having seen all this, is to become better, so that each of us strives to draw closer to this Divine light, to this grace, to this joy. But this requires serious work on ourselves. Each person must conquer himself.

I wish all of us that we more often look inside ourselves, into our souls, strive to drive away this darkness from ourselves, and draw closer to the Divine light.

Amen.