Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. The human
body, our bodies, especially the baptized and
chrismated body, the Christian body, is more
holy than any church, than anything in the church.
Think about this. I give you holy communion,
but if I drop a particle, On the floor. I will
go down on my hands and knees to consume it.
And I will burn that spot on the floor. To consume
it. You become a chalice. When you receive Holy
Communion. A living chalice. And St. Paul is
very clear about what Christians are. We are
the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's through the
Holy Spirit that Christ is with us at the liturgy
in the Holy Communion. What do we say at the
liturgy? Send down thy Holy Spirit and make this
bread the precious body of thy Christ. And that
which is in this cup the precious blood of thy
Christ. And first we say, make us also upon us
and this bread and this cup. So you're holy.
You're sanctified. You're a chalice. God is living
within you. Do we feel it always? No, we don't.
Our senses are so attuned just to the world and
how we feel and taste and see and touch that
our spiritual senses need to wake up more. Contrast
this, brothers and sisters, with this story,
this account you hear today. A legion. Thousands
of demons have fragmented this man. He doesn't
even have a name anymore. He's a living dead,
which is why it says he lives at the graves.
He's full of violence. They have to tie him down.
He's naked. He tries to destroy his soul and
his body. The demons hate humans because we have
a body. We're not just spirits. Not just souls,
but we are a mixture of the heavenly and the
earthly. Where one begins and the other, we don't
know. It's our body. It's keyed together. The
demons hate that because we have been called
to be holy, to be chalices, to be the temple
of God, and to sanctify everything around us,
the whole world. This is our calling. to pray
and to offer everything to God, to sanctify it.
The fallen angels, the demons, hate that. They
hate it. They're jealous. They seek to destroy
us. They seek to destroy our body and our soul,
to mutilate both, to disfigure them by temptation,
to violence, to anger, to hatred, to murder.
to see others as less, to gluttony, sexual immorality,
addiction, on and on, illness, sometimes. We
have to take care of what we have. I remember,
it must have been 1975, the summer after high
school graduation. I went to a drive -in movie.
Now, maybe some of you don't know what a drive
-in movie is. I very much date myself. You drive
the car into this big lot. There's a giant screen
bigger than that back wall, and there's a speaker
on a post, and you put that speaker on your window.
You roll that up a little bit like this. There's
no buttons in 1975. Well, unless you had a Continental
or Cadillac. And you watch the movie. My friends
and I went to see, a group of us went to see
The Exorcist. The horrible disfiguration of that
girl's face, her body, her voice, scared me so
badly. I could not sleep that night or for an
entire week without the radio on, listening to
Jazz Station. It turns out, brothers and sisters,
that the violence and the hatred and the disfigurement
of the human in that movie, while real, while
accurate in some ways, can't compare with the
reality of what goes on in the world and the
hatred and the violence. Jesus went to that village
to free that man. From the shackles that he was
under. He was caught. We don't know the story
of how that happened. That doesn't matter. But
freedom is the core message of the gospel. Our
freedom in Christ. We become servants of God
and we are freed from the slavery of the darkness
of this world and of ourselves too. I've quoted
this verse from the epistle to the Hebrews many,
many times. St. Paul writes, Christ came to destroy
him that held the power of death, that is the
devil. That's why you see that fresco of Christ,
the descent to Hades, on the bars and gates of
death and sin, crushing them. He came to destroy
him that held the power of death, that is the
devil, and free those who all their lives were
held in slavery by their fear of death. And John
the theologian wrote this. He said, the reason
the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's
work. St. Paul wrote that we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness
in this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places. All this destruction talk, this
gospel of freedom. But we wonder, don't we? Have
the old spiritual powers that were cast out,
have they returned as people forget God? St.
Peter says, be sober, be vigilant. The devil
goes around like a roaring lion waiting to consume.
Yes, the demons still harass us. This is the
truth. Psalm 110 claims, and we sing this at
Christmas time, note it, Christmas is coming.
That Christ rules all things. He is the Pantocrator.
That's what that icon up there is. The ruler
of all. Pantocrator. He rules all things. Even
Psalm 110 says. In the midst of his enemies.
There is footstool. And yes. We most certainly.
are wrestling against principalities, against
powers, against rulers of the darkness of this
world. But not only is Jesus ruling in the midst
of his enemies, those forces against us, listen
to what he said before he was crucified. Now
is the time for judgment on this world. What's
judgment? To set it right, to fix it. Now the
prince of this world will be driven out. And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, he means
on the cross, will draw all people to myself
to save them because he will be crucified and
rise from the dead. And that icon is the reality
of what happened. The villagers, the citizens
of this world, of all times, The villagers in
the gospel were witnesses of two things. The
terrible, horrible, demonic power. And there's
a long story there. I'm not going to go into
that. Why they were afraid. Why they asked Jesus
to lead. They were witnesses of that. They also
saw the power and authority of Jesus over that.
Complete, utter power control over that. They
saw those things. The whole world sees these
things. So let's set aside the notion that people
need to see miraculous things in order to believe
in Jesus. You heard last week, the man in Haiti
says to Father Abraham, just send somebody back
from the dead and they'll believe. Jesus says
in the parable, well, even if I send someone
back from the dead, they're not going to believe.
After seeing what had taken place, those villagers
begged Jesus Christ to leave them. And so he
did. God leaves us free. God is about freedom.
Those people chose darkness to continue what
they were doing, raising pigs for pagan sacrifices,
because that's what Roman sacrifices used, were
pigs. And the word of the Lord is ever true.
This is the judgment. The light... Capital L.
The light has come into the world and people
love darkness rather than the light. Such is
the state of things. How does it operate? If
Jesus has destroyed him who held the power of
death, that is the devil, we still have to recognize
that dark and evil spirits Not just an inclination
that a person has. That doesn't explain what
happens in the world, the horrible things. Dark
demonic spirits operate, yes, only through suggestion.
Only through temptation, manipulation, and deception.
But if we enter into that temptation and deception,
there is no end to the bottom of that. And many
are very willing to believe the lies to acquire
power for their ego, control, money, whatever
it might be, thinking they can manipulate dark
forces for their own happiness. And all of it
just produces profound misery and cruelty. The
gospel is called the good news because it remains
true that Jesus releases all of us from the bondage.
Of that terrible thing. The account we heard
today. Reminds us that Jesus is indeed. Lord
over all things. Has power over all things. He
says behold. I have been given. From the father
all authority. Both in heaven and on earth. And
he sits at the right hand. At the throne of the
father. Ruling and we are in him. And he is in
us. You have become the chalice. You have become
the bearer of the good news. Not just words,
but your actions, your life. You are the witnesses
of that good news. God, help us, please, Lord.
Help us to rejoice that we are in Christ and
that he is within us and that he is our peace,
which is why we start the liturgy with the peace
from above and the salvation of our souls. let
us pray to the Lord that peace is the precious
gift from God to us. And if we fall into sin,
if we fall into temptation, we can cleanse it
through confession. Our conscience convicts us
and we can be cleansed and peace will return
to our soul. And that power has no control over
us because we are illumined by the grace of God.
And we struggle to keep our conscience free.
The gospel says that the man formerly possessed
was what? He was sitting at the feet of Christ.
He was clothed and in his right mind. This is
the picture of the Christian. This is what we
are. This is what we are to be. Being clothed,
that's the description of the baptized Christian.
having died with Christ, risen in baptism, and
put on Christ. Now it is not I who live, you
heard in the epistle, but Christ who lives in
me. Rejoice, brothers and sisters, for the Lord
our God has saved us, and he will save everyone
who desires it. To him be glory, now and ever,
to ages of ages. Amen.