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.

And suddenly this madman, possessed man, runs headlong straight to meet the Lord, with scraps of chains dangling on his legs and arms, his hair disheveled, his eyes burning, bowing down before Him and exclaiming: "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God, do not torment me!" Because the Lord and this man were carriers of different spirits. It happens that we meet a person with the right facial features, dressed as usual, and he causes some kind of irritation in us. He hasn't said a word yet, and we don't like something about him anymore. Why does this happen? Because this person and I are carriers of different spirits. That's what we say: a person is not of our spirit. It is difficult for us to find a language with such people, but we can still start some kind of conversation with them within the framework of politeness. And there are spirits that are directly opposite, like those of the devil and Christ, and such a difference, polarity of spirits causes a person simply torment.

Why do young people of fifteen or sixteen years old insanely annoy people of sixty or seventy? Here comes a young man, jeans on him, sneakers, a ski cap - and the elderly man begins to get irritated at the sight of him, he does not like everything about him. The reason is that these people belong to different times, and each time has its own spirit, and the spirit of another time comes into disagreement with the spirit of the time of the past. And every discrepancy is a torment. If you have a foot size of forty-one, then try to wear thirty-six. While you are putting it on, you will experience torment: here it rubs, here it presses. The same thing happens with people, that is, it turns out that the peace of our soul, its well-being, peace, and silence depend on the spirits that dwell in the soul. The way we feel mentally depends on it. That is why the demoniac was tormented when he approached Christ, because he himself was the bearer of the spirit of darkness, and not one, but many, their name was legion, that is, several thousand demons were in his soul, and before him was the Son of God, the incarnation of grace, the opposite Spirit.

Each person in his life is ruled by the spirit. If, for example, he has a spirit of malice, then he is guided by this malice, this malice is constantly poured out on those around him. If a person has a spirit of greed, then he constantly shows this greed on every occasion and for no reason, that is, greed guides his life. If he possesses the spirit of fornication, then on every occasion and without reason he receives lewd thoughts and feelings into his head, into his heart. Possessed by the spirit of love of money, he tries to get monetary benefits from everything. He likes money itself, as such, its growth, increase. Although they may lie, for example, on the savings book as a dead weight and do not benefit a person, a person's well-being will not increase from the fact that money grows, but this growth itself gives him pleasure.

And there are a lot of such spirits: the spirit of gluttony, the spirit of laryngeal madness (love to eat deliciously), oversleeping, backbiting, verbosity - there are countless things. In the demon-possessed man of whom we have heard today there was a legion of spirits, but in each of us there are many of them, although they may not be legion. And when the number of unclean spirits in a person's soul reaches its apogee, a person is already completely enslaved by them, he ceases to have his own will. For example, we know how difficult it is for an alcoholic not to drink. Why is that? Because the spirit of drunkenness forces him to drink. Or a person has a passion for tobacco - and he cannot quit smoking. It seems to be a problem, don't smoke, and that's it. And he wants to, his spirit compels him. Thus the spirit compels one to chatter, compels one to gossip, to interfere in other than one's own affairs, to envy.

In fact, the whole earth is filled with these spirits, and their abundance is dictated by the spirit of the time. Why, for example, is the seventeenth century different from the twentieth? What spirits prevailed in the people of that time and ours - this is the difference. And this is reflected in everything: in music, in architecture, in people's behavior, in their clothes. Now the spirits have almost completely taken possession of mankind - evidence of this is that people are shying from side to side and have completely lost all possibility of normal behavior. Man is completely enslaved and subject to spirits. For example, he wants something - and immediately does it: he wants it - and leaves his wife, leaves the children; he wanted to drink, he wanted to drink too much; if you want to do a good job, if you want it - badly; he wanted to bow politely to someone, he wanted to be rude; He wanted to give birth to a child, he wanted to kill him who was conceived. That is, a person does as he wants, as he sees fit, as he feels, but all these feelings are evoked from the devil.

And what is truth, what is true, how to do the right thing? A person does not know this, because he does not know the Holy Scriptures, does not know the law of God, he is completely disoriented and is guided only by his "wants", by whether he is good or bad. He chooses such a life position: to suffer less. This is the only guiding criterion in life. The apartment is cold, I'm freezing - so what should I do? You need to try to change it to a warm one. I live far from work, it is difficult for me to travel - so I need to move closer to work. My wife is grumpy and already a little outdated - I need to change her to a younger and more accommodating one. I am paid one hundred and forty, and here they offer one hundred and sixty. So, I need to go there, because with these twenty rubles I can buy myself something else.

A person wants to get rid of suffering. For example, let's say he is irritated with someone, and irritation causes torment to his soul. What should be done? It is necessary to frustrate evil. If you pluck evil, it's easier. Or a person has an itch, you want to talk. He clung to someone, told him about himself, about his neighbors, complained about his children, discussed his superiors at work, discussed the order on the street, in the city, in the state - everything, it became easier, amused the devil. And so it is in everything. Those spirits that arouse desires in the soul, force a person to follow them, they torment him and weaken their torment only when a person obeys them. These spirits are like trainers: go along this road, and a little to the right or left - with a whip, and the person suffers. Therefore, in order not to experience torment, he begins to obey the spirits and completely becomes their slave: a slave of society, a slave of his own grandson, a slave of fashion, a slave of what will be said about him - that is, a person loses himself, becomes dependent on everything. He loses his freedom, which was given to him by the Lord who created him.