In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps you will remember at the beginning of the Gospel reading today how the Lord was already telling the demons to come out. When the Lord met this man who was possessed by the devil, He didn’t wait to be asked. He immediately began to cast the devil out. It wasn’t just one either, in the end; it was many. That’s why this man’s name was “Legion”. This man had lots of devils. No-one could hold him down. He was living wild in the graves, among the dead. He could be described as a living-dead-man when he was possessed by devils. When you are possessed by devils, who you really are is squashed down, and all these other personalities come in, and take you over, and they run you. This is what it means to be possessed.

In the end, only the Saviour, Himself, can get rid of the demons, and put things back in their proper order. So He did. He gave a few other lessons to people in the process about whether we should or should not be raising swine, because the Law said that it was not permitted to keep them. People were sort of perturbed – that’s one of the reasons, I think, that the people of the city asked Him to go away after they found out what had happened. On the other hand, it’s not the only time that people were so overawed with the wonder of what Jesus was doing in their midst: how He was setting people free, how He was showing love to them, how He was giving them life, how He was changing everything. Other reasons scared them off, I suppose, because in other cases the Lord would be told: Please go away from here (cf. Matthew 8:30). In another case, a man said to Him: “Depart from me, because I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8).

Sometimes we are like that ourselves. When we are paying attention to our sinfulness, to our brokenness, to our fallenness, and we think we are unworthy to be in the presence of the Lord because we are ashamed, we ask Him to go away from us. When we are in His presence, we feel how we have betrayed Him; we feel how we have caused His suffering; we feel ashamed of our behaviour, of our betrayal. But the Lord, in His mercy, doesn’t go away from us. He never goes away from us. We are the ones who go away from Him from time to time. He never goes away from us because He loves us, and He wants us to live with Him always, ever, and unto the ages of ages. He never leaves us, as many times as we leave Him. We are like those Apostles, who in the time of the Crucifixion, ran away. However, even though they ran away, He was still with them, and they came back to Him. We do the same: we run away from time to time because we are afraid. But He is always with us, and He helps us to come back to Him. The Lord, the Giver of life, cares about what happens to you, and to me. It’s for us to allow Him to work this love in us, this life in us.

The first thing for the Orthodox Christian is to express this love in thanksgiving, as we are doing here, now, today, during this Divine Liturgy. This is our thanksgiving all together to the Lord for His love for us, and for everything that He is doing for us. The more we love Him, the more we love being here with Him, not just on Sundays, but on any other day possible. I know that life is busy for lots of people, and there are a lot of demands, but lately, when I have been coming here for Vespers, there haven’t been all that many people in church. Compared to what happens on Sunday it’s few, and it’s my responsibility to say that Vespers is an important service because it prepares you, and me for today. In fact, I was thinking as I came into the church this morning, and the vesting began, and then the Divine Liturgy immediately began, that in the old days (when I was younger), when the bishop came into the church, he came in early, and then the Hours were read, and then the Liturgy began. For me, coming in like this, Hours are read ahead of time to make everything easy for everyone. But when I come in, and the Divine Liturgy begins just like that, it’s sort of a sudden start. The Hours prepare you. They get you warmed up. They get you going. The heart warms up while reading the Hours, and by the time the Divine Liturgy gets going, it’s easier to focus; it’s easier to offer this thanksgiving; it’s easier to glorify the Lord; it’s easier to be focussed about what we’re doing, instead of just jumping in like that. That’s what Vespers is about – helping us to get ready for today. The hymns in the evening tell us more or less what is going on in this Liturgy, whose memory we are keeping, and what we are celebrating today. During the Divine Liturgy we just sing some tropars. In Vespers, and Vigil, which is a full sort of preparation – this preparation really warms up the heart, and there are plenty of hymns that are telling us what’s coming. It prepares us for today. I am encouraging you to try to make more room for this preparation. If I sometimes ask for the entrance of the bishop to be even earlier than it is now so that I can be part of the Hours, don’t be surprised.

The Lord wants us to be with Him, and our place is here in His midst. With our hymns, and our songs, we tell the Lord that we love Him. He, as He is feeding us, is giving us His Word of life from the Scriptures, and He is feeding us with the Body, and Blood of the Saviour. He is with us, showing His love to us, giving His love to us, revitalising us with His love. Let’s ask that same Lord who loves us, who is always with us, who never deserts us, who always keeps us on the right path, even though the evil one is from time to time, or always attacking us – let’s ask Him to protect us, and keep us going. Let’s ask this same Lord to renew the fire of love for Him within us so that as St. Herman says: “From this day, from this hour, from this minute, we will love God above all, and do His holy will”, glorifying the all-holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America