The Swineherd Identity – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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The demon-possessed man whom Christ has healed asked Christ to follow Him, to the contrary, local inhabitants were left without Him because they did not accept Him, that is, they asked Him to depart from their region. This Gospel reading (Luke 8: 26-39) shows clearly that demon-possessed people can be healed easier, because they, being completely possessed by the demon, are left without the opportunity to freely decide on their salvation; and those who think they are spiritually healthy – and are not, it is much harder to be healed; because, if by their own free will, they remain slaves to the passions, they remain unhealed.
Free will is like a double-edged sword, because we can use it to reach the likeness of God, and by abusing it we can fall away from God. And God respects our freedom, because if freedom is violated, so is His image in us, according to which we are created; and where liberty is violated, there everything is violated.
Why do we not receive (accept) the God-Man Christ? Because of the satisfaction of our passions, which have become more important to us than Christ. The example of the people from the region of Gadarenes shows us that pigs (i.e. property) were much more important to them, because of the passions of covetousness and love of pleasures, rather than Christ; these passions are the ones that are called “rough (obvious) passions” and through which the demon attacks first.
Moreover, what can we say about the more subtle passion of the mind, such as the high opinion of ourselves, i.e. the vanity through which the demon holds us captive and through which he seriously attacks us at the end? Vanity is the last passion that is to be transfigured before passing from one stage of spiritual growth to another? Solely due to vainglory, our heart remains closed for the prayer of the mind in the heart (Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”), and the mind stays unenlightened. The only cure for vanity (vainglory) is obedience in anonymity.
According to the Tradition of the Holy Fathers and the teaching of the Church, the demon occupies the center of our heart before Baptism. But when the man at the moment of Baptism receives the grace of God in the center of the heart, then the demon is cast out of the center and he moves in the vicinity of the heart. As long as the heart is held captive by the passions and until it is sufficiently purified, that is, until a person reaches the second stage of spiritual growth – the prayer of the mind in the heart and enlightenment, the demon remains in the vicinity of our heart and holds it captive by igniting the passions and thoughts, and keeps it closed for the mind. This is that hidden demon-possession.
We need to know that the demon attacks us through the thoughts, the ideas of his depraved mind, transmitted to our mind by his energy. If we accept in our minds what he proposes to us, that is, if we agree with his thought, we lose the grace and we become darkened.
So, we lose grace not when the demon attacks us with some kind of evil (negative) energy of his own, but when we accept in the heart, with our free will, the evil that he proposes to us through thoughts.
Both the pigs and the swineherds fled from Christ, only the first ones, the pigs (although being not rational) drowned, being not capable to put up with the demons in themselves, and the others, the swineherds, not recognizing the demons in themselves, possessed by inner demonic fear, and in order to justify themselves for the loss of the property, they frightened the other like-minded inhabitants with the God-Man Jesus Christ. Swineherds are those who satisfy their passions, and pigs are the passions.
“Then all the people of the region of the Gadarenes asked Jesus to depart from them; because they were overcome with fear.” They were especially frightened from the healing of the demonized man. And it is clear why: Because, the presence of a man with authority and, the word with power accentuates the ones who seek vainglory; demons and people.
This is that “swineherd identity,” due to which we renounce Christ and our Christian identity.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, through Theotokos, reveal to us clearly our hidden demon-possession and save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(27.11.2021 16:55)
