Today we hear Saint Matthew’s account of how Jesus Christ cast the demons out of two demoniacs who had been living in the tombs in the territory of the Gadarenes. We hear that they were so fierce that nobody could pass near them. When Jesus appeared they recognized Him and challenged Him saying: “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” Sending the demons into a herd of swine, Christ healed the two men, restoring them to their senses.
Such accounts may seem strange to our modern ears. Yet Saint Matthew clearly shows us that the demons had taken possession of these men in a fairly dramatic way, that they recognized the authority of Christ, and that He had authority over them.
It is significant that these demoniacs were living in the tombs, for that is the place of the dead. And the fact is that the presence of the demonic, of evil, of the devil himself, leads to death. It also leads to violence, which is another characteristic of the devil, in total contrast to the peace which comes from God.
Today’s Gospel account might sound like an extreme encounter with the demonic. While such encounters exist, the reality is that, for most of us, our encounter with the demonic comes in a much more subtle manner. The Fathers teach us that people are not possessed by demons overnight; rather such possession comes after first surrendering our free will and allowing our thoughts to be distracted by ideas that are evil, and from there it is a slippery slope as they increasingly come to exercise control over us. We need to guard our thoughts from evil and to ask for Christ’s help in not allowing evil habits to take control over us.