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.

And Christ came to earth in order to restore our freedom again, so that we would no longer obey the spirits, but, on the contrary, obey only God. But because we are already accustomed to evading the sufferings that are coming to us, we become slaves of these spirits and do not want to be slaves of Christ. And that's our trouble.

Why was this Gadarene demoniac healed? We are all possessed, each of us has many different demons in his soul - and so we are not healed, but he is healed. The thing is that he found the strength to overcome the terrible torment that he experienced when approaching Christ - and one can imagine how the fire burned him, it is simply terrible. When a person is filled with unclean spirits, he always experiences this burning sensation when he meets the Spirit of God. Each of us, for example, knows from experience that when a person begins to go to church, his family immediately turns on him or persecution begins at work, although his jacket remains the same, his face is the same, his hairstyle is the same, and his shoes are the same. The Lord said so: "A man's enemies are his own household." And what do people suddenly resent in this person? They feel that something is wrong in it - they feel the wrong spirit, the Spirit of Christ, that torments them.

Sometimes you come to the hospital to give communion to a sick person. One doctor sees that the priest is walking, and calmly passes by, and the other begins to baring his teeth, growling and literally jumping aside. Why is that? Why make too much noise? You may get burned later. No, this is the reaction, a person cannot control himself, because he is controlled by unclean spirits, spirits of malice, hatred, and when he sees the bearers of another spirit, he begins to go berserk.

How can we defeat the unclean spirits that sit in us? How can we be healed, how can we get rid of them? First, we need to know what kind of spirits govern us; We must watch ourselves, our words, our thoughts, feelings, deeds - then we will understand what prevails in us: whether it is the spirit of envy, the spirit of slander, condemnation, pride, vanity, fornication, or some other spirit - despondency, for example, or love of money. And then we will enter into a struggle with him - with God's help, of course, because only Christ can heal, like this demoniac who, although there were thousands of demons in him, nevertheless came to Christ, enduring terrible torment - everything inside him was boiling and he would gladly rush at Christ and tear Him to pieces with his claws, because he had incredible power, He tore iron chains. But he so desired to be healed of these demons that he fell down and worshipped the Lord. And each of us, if he worships Christ, that is, if he bends his proud neck under the commandments of God, can defeat the demons and can free the soul from these iron bonds that bind him. To free the soul from envy, from greed, fornication, laziness, malice, irritation, anger - from everything that binds us, that divides us, that prevents us from seeing God. This, in fact, is the fulfillment of the law of Christ, the fulfillment of His commandments.

Therefore, we need to recognize this sin in ourselves – that which separates us from God – and then we must worship Christ. And one must endure, because in order to be healed from sin, a person has to endure terrible torment. For example, someone annoys you, and try not to be irritated day after day. Well, to begin with, at least do not give the impression that he annoys you, do not cast angry glances, let your voice not tremble, try to speak calmly - and you will see what a torment it is. It is much easier to push him away, to say impudent things to him, to be rude in some way - and immediately the soul will be pleasant, because the demon that arouses irritation in the soul will weaken its pressure. He waits for us to sin, to get into the mud, and then He will let us go a little. And then it will start all over again, and so the endless game: he irritates us, we will take out our anger, we will feel better. Tomorrow is annoying again, and so on endlessly. And this will continue not only until death, but also after death, because we will carry our irritation there, to the next world. And this torment that we endure, let irritation be allowed - and we have countless such torments - we will endure forever. This is what is called eternal fire, this is what hell is called. This is where he irritates you - you have taken out your anger, and you feel better. And there it is impossible, there irritation will boil in you, and there will be nothing to take it out on. Therefore, hellish torment is a thousand times stronger.

And Christ offered us another way: to free ourselves from irritation altogether, to achieve a state of mind when nothing irritates us: no person, neither the weather, nor the low salary, nor the fact that the shoe is leaking, nothing at all, when we are even and calm. And not because we don't care about anything, but because through patience we have achieved humility. How, for example, is victory over irritation achieved? Only by patience and prayer, only by constant abstinence: I will die, and I will not be irritated. And if irritation does boil in me, I begin to pray to God until it goes away. And so I will do today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, ten years, twenty years, thirty, forty years - until the irritation disappears. And I will do so with every sin that I find in myself.

What a terrible torment it is, what hard work, especially for a person who first came to church in his years! When a child is small, it is easy for him to defeat many sins in himself. Therefore, it is good when father and mother bring a child to church from infancy. And when a person comes to church for the first time at the age of fifty and every sin is not just a stalk, but a tree like this, try to tear it out of your heart. How much work is needed! For many, this is already useless. It remains only to hope for God's mercy, for the Lord Himself to save, sending some sorrow, some illness, some difficulty. Well, for example, a person is so used to eating delicious food that he sees salted mushrooms - and is not able to resist. It would seem to be a trifle: well, don't eat, and that's it. But this is just for someone who has already fasted, who has trained in abstinence, and for him it is a terrible torment. And the Lord, having compassion on him, sends him some kind of ulcer or cholecystitis, in which it is categorically forbidden to eat mushrooms: eat a mushroom, and there will be an attack. And a person straightens himself out - as if with a stick.