The Difference in Choice – Father Gavril Galev
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We have interpreted this event many times, and no matter how many times we read and interpret it, it will still not be completely clear to us why these people expelled Christ from their lands.
Something else which comes to mind is how we can connect this event to the event with the Samaritans.
The Samaritans, just like the Gadarenes, did not adhere to the Law and the Holy Scriptures and consequently they were sinning. The difference is that, after the Samaritan woman told the Samaritans about Christ, they came, listened to Him, and accepted Him. In contrast, after the swineherds told the Gadarenes what had happened, they came and met Christ outside the city and asked Him to depart from them.
This is what occurs every time in our life when we put something or someone before Christ. For the Gadarenes, the gratification of their passions was more important, they closed themselves off from Christ, and He did not enter their land. For the Samaritans, on the other hand, the most important thing was to know the true God, so they knew Christ and accepted Him. Taking pleasure or serving the passions shows that we are captive to them, that is, captivity by the devil. More specifically, the more we are open to Christ and allow Him to enter and dwell within us, the more He acts and we feel freedom. The Samaritans opened up and conversed with Him. On the other hand, these imprudent Gadarenes closed themselves off from Christ, did not even want to talk to Him, and immediately rejected Him.
That is why it is prudent to be like the Samaritans, to converse with Christ and allow Him to enter and dwell within us, and consequently, to write our names in the book of the living, unlike the Gadarenes who left an image of themselves as a sinful people.
May the Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of all the Saints, help us to be like the Samaritans and not like the Gadarenes.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the Monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
28 / 07 / 2024
