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.

What we cannot finish due to our weakness, the Lord Himself, in His mercy, corrects by giving us such medicines. True, they are bitter and difficult, but if we want to save our souls from sin, to gain freedom, then we must accept it. Therefore, what happens to us, all sorrows, illnesses, must be accepted with joy, we must greedily drink the cup of suffering, because this heals us from sin. Although the demon whispers to us all the time: avoid suffering, find some way out so that you just don't suffer. He wants to suggest that it will be good for us only if we indulge the demon, but in fact he deceives us. No matter how much you eat in the evening, even a whole truck of food, tomorrow you will want to eat even more. This is the law. The more a person sleeps, the greater his need for sleep. The more a person drinks, the more he needs to drink. The more he fornicates, the more he must fornicate. The more money he has, the more and more and more he needs.

For example, we read in the newspaper: we stole 250 thousand rubles from the state - and we are surprised: the question is, well, what to do with this money? And they know what to do with them, and it is not enough for them. They did not just steal and calm down, no, this process goes on and on, because a person cannot be satiated with sin. This is impossible, the demon will not leave him alone, he will constantly pull the string, and the man, like Hampelman, will carry out all his commands: the demon pulled this string - the man raised his hand, the demon pulled that thread - the man turned his head. That is, he is completely a slave of a demon, and not one, but many, and this is what his life consists of. A person lived to death and does not understand that all his life he was pulled by countless threads and he lived on these threads and did not even know that there is Christ, what salvation is, that there is freedom from sin, there is a completely new life.

And Christ came to earth, founded the Church, so that we could be freed and cleansed from this filthy life in which we live. And the example of this demoniac shows us that we can be freed from sin. To do this, we need to fall down to Christ, to hate the sins that we see in our souls - and if we go to church, we will see sins in ourselves each time more and more, and more, and more. When a person comes to church for the first time, it seems to him that he is good, that he has never done anything bad to anyone. This is what the demon arranges, inspires this thought in him, and man, being the very last sinner, thinks to himself that he is profoundly right, that he can teach others, and in general he knows everything as it should be. In fact, this is a deep error, and gradually, knowing himself, knowing God, a person sees that here he is a sinner, and here, and here, and finally sees his sins like the sand of the sea. That's when the healing process begins.

Therefore, we must strive for this, if, of course, we want eternal life, we want the Kingdom of Heaven, we want to unite with the Holy Trinity. And if we want to continue to be beyond the grave in the hell in which we live now, to stew forever in this cauldron of sin, then for health, to each his own, everyone chooses the life that he likes. A person receives what he has actually created for himself. Everyone is either a slave of Christ - he obeys Him in everything, all His commandments; or a slave of the devil - and then he begins to obey demons. There is no other condition.

But since we are believers, since we have come to church, it means that we must strive to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Our earthly life is only a preparation for eternal life, which begins there. How long will we live here? Well, sixty, well, seventy, rarely ninety years, and that's it. And then the most interesting thing begins. But we are completely unprepared for what begins there. Here we have settled, here we already have everything, but there we have nothing. And we must definitely take care of this. One day I would sit down in the kitchen in the evening, turn off the light and think: I am already so old and how long I will live - let's say, ten or twelve years. Okay, and then what? Here I am dead, lying in a coffin, surrounded by foam flowers, painted with aniline paint, completely ugly. My relatives lined up around me in black kerchiefs, whom I had not seen in the eyes for ten years - and suddenly they came, what, I asked? They are gossiping something among themselves, discussing: to burn - not to burn, to carry - not to carry. Then they took me to the cemetery on the bus and covered my body with earth. What will happen to my soul now? Will she go to the Kingdom of Heaven, to Christ? And in general, who is Christ? Where is he? What kind of Himself is He? Do I know Him? Well, yes, it seems that he went to church, lit candles, commemorated his parents' father and mother. Well, did you know Christ, God? Am I a servant of God?

Can a person say about himself that he is a servant of God? A slave is one who has nothing, and his whole life belongs to his master: if the master wants, he will kill the slave, if he wants, he will have mercy on him; If he wants, he will dress him, if he wants, he will undress him. And the slave completely obeys the master. Do we have such a relationship with God? No, not like that. God is somewhere far, far away. When we need Him, we will come to church and pray. And so we do not need God, we are busy with our lives. And it would be good for us to think that this life of ours will end very soon and we will find ourselves in the stupidest situation, because all our lives we have been trying for something, and all this turned out to be completely unnecessary. As the Lord said: "Martho, Martha, take care and pray for many, but there is only one thing that is needed." One thing is needed: to listen to the words of God and to fulfill them.

Therefore, you see how much we still have to correct in ourselves. And we must try to devote the remaining time to this, so that we do not live in vain, otherwise it will be just a shame. How much they suffered, how much they suffered, and all in vain. If you suffer and suffer, then for the sake of something great, necessary and valuable, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no higher value on earth. Therefore, we need to arrange our lives in this way. And for this we need to get rid of what prevents this, to get rid of the demons that sit in our souls and govern our entire life. Amen.