Such was Pharaoh, who did not want to let the people of Israel go out of Egypt; such was the terrible King Nebuchadnezzar, such was Judah. But again ask why God allows such evil people to be born, and if they are born, they would rather die. Again criticism of God's ways, again reasoning about what you do not understand. It is necessary to understand that God does not make anyone evil.

Evil are not born, the evil are evil because they themselves choose the path of evil; they could have been good, had escaped the terrible fate of Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Judah, if they had wanted to. Remember, remember the basic and most important truth – the truth that God does not forcibly attract anyone to Himself, does not force anyone to obey Him with fear and trembling. Remember that only pure free love for God is pleasing to Him.

Submission out of fear has no moral value. Judas, if he had wanted to, could not have become the terrible traitor that he became. Oh, how much good, how great he saw and heard from his Teacher! Oh, how meekly the Saviour treated him even at this terrible hour of the Last Supper, when he was ready to leave in order to betray the Lord to the scribes, Pharisees and chief priests.

See how He spoke of His betrayer. He could have severely and angrily rebuked Judas in front of everyone. He didn't. With deep sorrow He says to His disciples: "One of you will betray Me." He does not name the traitor. He waits to see if the terrible thought of betrayal will not be extinguished in Judas's heart, whether at the last moment he will repent of the evil deed he is plotting, whether he will not abandon his intention to betray the Lord.

But the evil in the heart of Judas had already reached such great strength that he was not ashamed even to ask, together with the other disciples: "Is it I, Lord?" After all, the accursed one knew that it was he, he knew that he was betraying, and he dared to ask if it was me. The Lord did not denounce the traitor before all the disciples here either. He said quietly, "You said." It meant: you confessed yourself - you will betray me. And he gave him holy bread.

"And after this morsel Satan entered into him," as the Holy Apostle John says (John 13:27). Oh, how terrible it is: Satan himself has entered into the human heart, even if it be Judas... How is this possible, maybe, you ask? What does that mean? How is it possible that after Judas has just received the holy bread from the hands of the Lord, which has become His Body, Satan should immediately enter into his heart?

And if the Evangelist said so, it means that it was so, it means that Satan really entered the heart of Judas. Satan made his abode in the heart of Judas, just as the Holy Spirit makes the heart of pure and righteous people his abode. Judas became the house of Satan. How can we comprehend this, so that the devil can take possession of the human heart completely, so that Satan enters into man? Here's how it's possible.

Satan does not immediately dwell in a person's heart, he does not have the power to enter it, especially if this heart is sanctified by the great sacraments of repentance and communion. Satan cannot directly, boldly, forcibly enter the heart if the Holy Spirit lives in it, for Satan cannot dwell together with the Holy Spirit: there is no place for Belial where God is. Satan did not immediately enter Judas's heart.

He had tempted Judas before to evil and betrayal, and he continued to tempt him for a long time, probably during all of Judas's apostolic years, and perhaps even earlier. For we read in the Evangelist John that Judas was a thief: he carried a box into which donations were dropped, and stole from it. This means that both before and before the apostolate he was a thief and a lover of money.

When did Satan completely take possession of Judas's heart? Then, when Judas finally made up his decision to betray the Savior, and the Holy Spirit left him, and he became the house of Satan. Remember this. But do not think that Judas alone was the dwelling place of Satan: there were many people who were so steeped in evil, in lies, in murder, and theft, that evil spirits entered into them.

With them was what the Lord Jesus Christ told us: "When an unclean spirit comes out of a man; then he walks in dry places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then he says, I will return to my house from whence I came; and when he comes, he finds it unoccupied, swept and tidy. then he goes, and takes with him seven other spirits, more evil than himself, and having entered, they dwell there; and for that man the latter is worse than the first. So it will be with this evil generation" (Matt. 12:43-45).

The evil race becomes the plaything and abode of evil spirits. And we, Christians, what conclusion will we draw from all this? Let us think that this horror of the possession of an evil spirit threatens each of us, although we pray, although we partake of the Holy Mysteries, for the Body and Blood of Christ is not a talisman, it is not something mechanically protecting us from all evil, from all the slanders of the devil and his angels.

This is only God's great, immeasurable help in our struggle with temptations from evil spirits, if our hearts are pure, if we do not constantly, day after day, sin. Let us keep in our hearts the great word of the Saviour: "The Kingdom of God is taken by force, and only those who require effort take it away." Let us wage a constant struggle against our vices and passions and condemn no one, remembering that there are many traitors among us; of course, not as terrible as Judas, but still traitors.

In our efforts to take possession of the Kingdom of God, may our Lord and God Jesus Christ grant us His all-powerful help, to Whom be glory and dominion with His Father and the Most Holy Spirit forever. Amen. March 19, 1950 A WORD ON PASSION. TENTH: They began to beat our Lord Jesus Christ and Savior of the world in the Garden of Gethsemane.