Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov

Sermon

Book 4

With the blessing of His Holiness

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

ALEXY II

Thursday of the 14th Week after Pentecost

Truly it is: "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Humanity is now completely confused and does not know where to go. All sorts of societies, committees appear, people solve questions, the answer to which, in fact, was known thousands of years ago: how to preserve the family, how to raise children. Everything has to be rediscovered, as if humanity only yesterday began to get married, get married or give birth to children. And smart people sit and think: what to do, where is humanity going, what to do with drug addicts, what to do with drunkards, and why are there so many foul mouths and thieves?

But in fact, as they say, the new is the well-forgotten old. And indeed, "blessed are they that hear the word of God," since in the word of God there is an answer to all these questions. Take it, open it and read it, it says everything. Otherwise, without God, it is simply impossible to somehow arrange a moral life: as soon as a person loses God, he becomes an immoral being, because morality must necessarily rest on something. For example, tell a person: be good, don't steal. And he will ask: why not steal? I see, it's lying badly, and I'll take it for myself, no one will see it, but there's still a lot, it won't go away. Is it bad - and there is no loss, and I feel good: I brought it to the house, and my wife is happy? Try to explain to a person why it is bad to steal or why drinking is bad. It is sold in the store - so I can, I drink on my own, I don't lie around, I fulfill the norm, I bring half of my salary to my wife. Why is it bad to drink? It is not known why. You see, the bosses don't like it. This is not an argument.

Without the concept of sin, without knowledge of God, spiritual life, and the expectation of retribution, no morality can be established at all. A person must deeply understand what the essence of sin is, understand concretely why it is bad. And the Scriptures reveal to us the wisdom of God every time.

So today in the Gospel of Mark we read an episode that we should all be well aware of: about the healing of a demoniac man. The Lord, when He had crossed the Lake of Galilee, entered the region called the Gadarene Country. And then a man ran out to meet him, whom everyone feared, because he was possessed by demons, that is, possessed by unclean spirits. The locals tried to pacify him somehow, even chained him in iron chains, tied him with metal rods, but the demons in him were so strong that he broke these chains and kept all the surrounding villages in fear.

The Jews buried the dead in caves, because their country is mountainous and there are many caves there. The deceased was placed in a cave and the entrance was covered with a stone. We also have such burials, for example, in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra or in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. And the demoniac lived in these graves, that is, in caves, where the stone had already been destroyed and the deceased had decayed. He ate anything: what he stole, or some animal he caught - that is, he was a completely brutal person.